February 15, 2016

I took these shots of the hen Barrow's Goldeneye at Hoover Reservoir yesterday. It took a bit of time to get through the several hundred pictures I took yesterday. I would loved to have gotten a drake as well but we don't get to choose which wildlife makes itself available to shoot. I will catch the drake on another day.

February 14, 2016

I have been trying for three days to get close to these hooded mergansers; today was the day. These were shot in the spillway beneath Hoover Reservoir. I really love to photograph diver ducks; dead of the winter is the only time I seem to be able to get close enough to get decent shots at them.

 The buffleheads are really cool I think. Because of the dark eyes and the dark head one has to get pretty close to get the eyes to show up; I do not like a waterfowl picture if the eyes are not showing.


The first three are a cool sequence of the drake bathing.

 This is probably my favorite of the day. I like the softness in the image. The camera was using f-10 on automatic; in this shot I manually adjusted it to f-6.3 I sacrificed a bit of sharpness but, I like the effect especially on the hen.

I caught just a touch of the iridescent purple and green in the drakes head; once again just need to get closer.

February 13, 2016

I shot these at Deer Creek Wildlife Area this afternoon. 

January 24, 2016

I made another quick trip up to Hoover this afternoon. I was surprised to see the green-wing teal around here in the dead of winter; its been a strange year. I am hoping the weather stays good and cold to freeze up even more water and  further concentrate the ducks.

The immature bald eagle was just sitting on the ice about 200 yards from a parking area, it would have been nice to have been closer. I have seen eagles do this in other places so I think it is fairly normal behavior for eagles to perch on the ice like this. Not a great shot but, considering the distance I can live with it.

I got a fairly decent shot of the hen buffle-head, they are very small and I have not been able to get really close to them.  Hope you enjoy these!

January 23, 2016

First post of the new year; I shot these at Hoover Reservoir in Columbus Ohio this afternoon. I really like the shovelers!

 There were a few buffleheads hanging around.

 Lastly some gadwalls.

November 15, 2015

I shot these black ducks over at Blendon Woods this afternoon. Note one of them is banded and has some green on his head making me think it is possibly a black duck mallard cross. Threw in the geese just for fun. Enjoy!

October 18, 2015

I took this shot of the female northern shoveler at a wildlife refuge in northcentral Ohio. I had not seen any shovelers around these parts since early last spring, not sure if this is an early migrator or perhaps a resident bird. I shot this about an hour before dusk, the sun had just came out of the clouds putting a wonderful glow on everything, this is without doubt my favorite time of day to photograph waterfowl.