Primary Pattern

I have a tendency to look for patterns and designs in nature, especially when shooting macro subjects. I caught myself doing the same thing last week when shooting ducks. Maybe there is something to the saying, "It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks."

Mirror, mirror. . .

This female mallard seems to be preening in front of the camera as if it is a mirror while the male waits patiently. This interpretation might have been influenced by raising two daughters.

Bald Eagle Dinner

I spent the the entire afternoon watching a flock of ducks and several bald eagles with no action. Suddenly about 15 minutes before sunset an eagle swooped down and grabbed a mallard. I missed the grab but hit the record button a second later to get this footage. This might be amazing to me but the background sound reminds me that is a normal day in the lives of ducks and eagles.

Technical: slight cropping of birds on ice

An Evening with the Ducks

April was a busy month! Ducks have been moving through and despite the persistent winter weather it was a good month to record wildlife.  I used a portable ground blind that sits in front of the tripod, a face mask, and dark gloves to make me invisible to the teal. They tolerated the push/pull focal length changes on the Canon 100-400 lens. ISO was about 12k in the final scenes.

MIgrating Waterfowl

I explored the Mississippi R. between Nelson and Trempeleau NWR yesterday looking for tundra swans, trying to recapture intimate images like the last time I was there in 2006.  There were a few shy swans on Riecks Lake but the dredging has moved them some distance from the viewing platform.  Trempeleau has birds but all at an extreme distance.  It was a good birding trip with a couple images as a bonus.