March 28, 2015

I visited Bald Knob (enough with the jokes) Wildlife Management Area near Bald Knob (stop it!) Arkansas today. There are still some waterfowl species present although, many of the birds have moved north. I had good looks at some of the birds today as you will see. I was very pleased to get the blue winged teal and the egrets. Other species I was able to identify but not get good shots at include northern shovelers, mallards, white front and snow geese, American coots, and a pair of bald eagles. Interestingly I also flushed a pretty nice covey of bobwhite quail; they were unexpected and quite startling! A dozen or so of them I would guess.

This is likely the last entry I will be making before leaving Arkansas; should be headed back to Ohio at the end of next week. As always I hope you all enjoy the pictures, please feel free to comment!

Blue Winged Teal

Great Egret

Blue Heron

March 21, 2015

I was given the opportunity to spend a couple weeks in Arkansas. Today I had some free time and was able to visit the White River National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Arkansas. The water is very high with the recent rains and snow melt in the area. The areas around the river are flooded and swiftly flowing with muddy water; not much in the way of waterfowl on the river. There were many ducks and geese in the surrounding floodplains and rice fields. Among the species I was able to identify were mallards, coots, northern shovelers, green-winged teal, white fronted geese, snow geese, and wood ducks.

I did not have great luck with the camera as you will see. It was difficult to get close to the birds as they could see me from  quite a long way. I need to do some research and determine a few things; many of my shots are not great in overcast conditions. I may need to make some adjustment to exposure, I will figure it out in time.

I was excited to get the chance to photograph the white fronted geese, I do wish the shot was better.

March 18, 2015

I was looking through some older pictures and decided to post these shots taken in March 2014. I really like the light conditions they were take under, everything was really glowing in the late afternoon sun. I hope you like them!

March 17, 2015

I had a great visit with the newly arrived wood ducks at Blendon Woods this afternoon. This is a sure sign of great things coming our way; out with winter and in with spring. These woodies are probably my favorite duck; the most beautiful in my opinion. I am going to keep an eye on them, I hope they nest here and I can capture some wood duck chicks with the camera soon. I was able to get a decent shot of the gadwall today and included it. As always, I hope you enjoy the pictures, please comment and subscribe!

Wood Ducks

Gadwall

March 15, 2015

I visited the waterfowl marsh at Delaware Wildlife Area near Delaware, Ohio this afternoon. It was a productive trip and I am glad I went. There were several waterfowl species present; Canadian geese, northern shovelers, mallards, hooded mergansers, common goldeneye, and a pair of American coots. I normally don't spend much time on mallards or geese, I just don't find them too interesting because there are so many of them around.

I could not get close enough to the shovelers to get a good shot; nothing to post on the shovelers. I got a couple  shots of the hooded mergansers, they were really skittish and would not stick around to be photographed, so a couple shots but nothing to be very excited about. There are some pretty nice shots of the hooded mergansers in an older post in my blog. I flushed out a common goldeneye that was hanging out with the mergansers, I am disappointed I could not get a shot of the goldeneye to share with you all.

Best shots of the day were the coots. Most times they are not too exciting but I do find them interesting. I did just a bit of research at:

 http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Coot/id

I was surprised the coot is not really a duck but a closer relative of the sandhill crane, I did not know that fact; this has become a fascinating hobby! There is so much to learn it should never get boring.

Comments on any of the posts here are very much appreciated, so feel free leave your thoughts and thanks for visiting. Enough chatter lets get on with the show!

Hooded Merganser

American Coot

March 14, 2015

Up until now I have added new pictures to existing posts that were sorted out by species. I have decided to post my new shots in a single post by date, and sort them by species in the new post. I think this will help the viewer see what's new without having to go into old posts. Any new viewers I hope will take a few minutes and go through the older stuff; there are some shots in the archives I am really excited about. I hope everyone enjoys the new system. Might as well get started right now, I got these shots at Blendon Woods Metro Park this afternoon. Please comment and let me know what you like. My favorite shot today is the hen and drake ring-necks together.

Bluebill

Ring-neck Ducks

America Wigeon 

March 11, 2015

I was looking around on the Ducks Unlimited website and found this PDF:

http://www.ducks.org/media/Conservation/GLARO/_documents/_library/_landowner/WoodDuck_NestBox.pdf

This contains plans for construction of wood duck boxes. Building a few of these boxes would be a great way to encourage woodies to nest at your local pond or wetland. Good conservation practices are key to our being able to enjoy these beautiful ducks.

March 9, 2015

March has been a great month for waterfowl photographing in central Ohio! Due to the extreme cold weather in our area the birds have concentrated themselves in any open water they can find. Many pictures I have taken this month have been in the tailrace below the dam at Hoover Reservoir located on the northeast side of Columbus and an aerated addition pond near South Bloomfield Ohio.

Finding the pond in South Bloomfield was a real stroke of luck. I have stopped there a few times over the last couple of weeks. This past Friday I spent a couple of hours there shooting, almost all of the 300 or so ducks present were divers. I was patient and went slowly with the birds and they let me get very close to them. I am really proud of the shots of the cans, redheads, and mergansers.

With the approach of the spring thaw I fear the ducks will begin to spread out and make photographing them more difficult . I look forward to the return of species such as wood ducks and teal and hope to catch up with some of them this spring.

Ringneck Duck

Bluebill

Canvasback

This is one of my favorites!