I have a small collection of the same subject from two consecutive days, but the best images were the first and tapered off a bit from there, so we’re doing them mostly in reverse order.
Four or five days ago (depending on when I actually post this – it’s 11 PM right now,) the day dawned quite foggy, and I looked out at the pond and saw practically nothing. No, it wasn’t quite that bad, but it was thick, and the wood ducks (Aix sponsa) were barely showing.
One male was perched in one of the trees on Duck Island, just checking out the environs before heading down for a snack, where it met up with its mate (I’m assuming, anyway – they tend to travel in pairs.)
The fog was ever-so-slightly thinner by then, though by the time it had really thinned out, the ducks had moved on, so this was about all I got for the morning.
The previous afternoon, however, had been much better, with the setting sun lancing between the trees and illuminating their feeding area brilliantly. Though, as I said, we’re doing this in reverse order, so we have an image from when the sun had passed behind the trees and the area was wholly in twilight.
A nutria (Myocastor coypus) had come up and was gorging itself on corn while the wood ducks swam quite close, anxiously waiting for the rodent to finish up and let them have a crack at it. Which is kind of amusing, because we put down a lot of corn, all along that pond edge, so they easily could have grabbed some without being anywhere near the nutria; I suspect this was almost a matter of territoriality, though the ducks really don’t dispute it. They just look on disapprovingly like elderly ladies regarding buskers, tut-tutting around conspicuously until the setlist is over.
Yet before that, the light was excellent.
C’mon, like I was gonna pass up this composition? This is almost certainly going on the walls here, because it says, ‘Walkabout Estates’ pretty damn well I think.
The same male wood duck got his own portrait, with a decent reflection to go along.
I’m sorry the sides bleached out a little, but this is one of the best captures of their colors that I’ve achieved yet, and I’m glad they didn’t spook when I opened the upstairs window – I think they’re getting better about that, as long as I’m slow and quiet about it.
Before that, however, was the scene that drew me to the window in the first place, where a couple of males had perched in that same tree on Duck Island, a favorite of theirs.
Actually, I think there had been more, but only these two remained by the time I got up there, with a female swimming past in the background. At least the branches were mostly out of the way, and I could shift the camera to the right to eliminate the cypress trunk that blocks most of Duck Island from that vantage.
Which brings us to the final image, though whether this counts as the strong finish or the strong start, I can’t say.
Which portrait do you like better: this one or the one with the goose? This shows the ‘unfinished painting’ look of the belly coloration, making me wonder if that serves some purpose. They’re vegetarians, so it’s not like the colors do something for the fish beneath or anything. I’m not coming up with any valid ideas on this.
Anyway, that’s seven more out of the backlog in the blog images folder – still more to go, to say nothing of what I might snag before I catch up. The year’s off to a good start.