Wildlife in Photography

What I thought would be a bust turned out to be a day of great shots.

Thursday evening in Huntley Meadows I began the outing with my usual scan of the boardwalk area. I found very little until I rounded a corner and saw a familiar sight.

The gosling is getting a little bigger and I was able to shoot at close range. Although the parents tolerated me, they occasionally hissed under their breath, as if they were just reminding me that they were there.

A short distance from the boardwalk, I noticed the mother Merganser with her young. For a few minutes, the group was separated, resting on different logs in the water. And then zip!

Those youngsters are speedboats on the water when they go full steam. As quickly as they could, they reunited with their siblings and brought the group back together in one location.

This gave me a perfect opportunity and I laid prone to document them for several minutes. My favorite shot is already in the next book layout, but a close second is at the top of this post.

On a nearby walkway, two more photographers joined to shoot the scene as well as other nearby birds.

When we had exhausted the possibilities, I moved on.

On the far side of the park were a few interesting observations. The first was a Great Blue Heron that was swimming through the water in a rare manner.

Every time I have ever seen a heron in water, it has been standing and slowly striding. This was the first time I’ve seen one actually sit down and swim.

Off into the distance and closing in were several deer, which I also made an effort to document.

The deer were nice to see, but the action left me wanting more. I’ll have to find them again when there is more action to work with.

After the light began to fade, I started to make my way out, but noticed that the Merganser had struck one final (sleepy) pose for the day. Thanks, old friend.