It isn’t very often these Wood Ducks pass by this close. This year has been better than most for photographing them.
I tried for years before finally getting a single image.
I have read Wood Ducks are the most common duck in South Carolina.
They must be writing about the other side of the state. I still need to work pretty hard to catch them around the Lowcountry.
While trying to get a good Wood Owl portrait this bird was flying and posing in many different positions. I certainly was not going to just stand around and wait for the perfect head shot.
I have always had better luck shooting a shorter lens, and not a big 150-500/600 zoom in these scenes. In previous sessions I noticed most everything was shot at or around 300 mm.
This was the first serious work I had done with the shorter Tamron 18-400 mm. As expected grabbing a fast focus was difficult, Sigma is much better. I felt the really broad focal range offered with this lens made up for it since this was not wide open in flight work.
Click, or double tap, any image below to view the gallery.
Photographed at The Center For Birds Of Prey, Charleston, South Carolina.
Many people have never seen an actual rookery. I know I hadn’t until a few years ago. They are nothing like I would have imagined. A rookery is; crowded, loud, smells, exciting, and sometimes sad.
The photograph above is a good example (click any image to see the detailed chaos). This single cypress has at least 10 Great Egret nests, 2 Great Blue Heron, and scattered around a few Anhinga chicks can be seen.
Above is a different tree, closer to the swamp edge, but the same concept. Condo living. The main draw is a) surrounded by water and b) they have been here before c) Alligators patrol below and protect from attacks.
The last image here is of low hanging branches on a small island in the middle of a lake. Again, if you look at this full size you can find many different species. What you can’t see are the numerous Alligators that rest of the ground underneath these trees.
Most nesting occurs February through July, then the last of the juveniles are flying.
A female getting all her feathers dried in the slight breeze we had.
She took advantage of it and turned, preening, in every direction. Her details came out nicely on these, click any image to view full size.
This was not how I thought the day would end. I was not really near the bamboo swamp, nor planned to be. But I followed along and surprise… our friend Norma (the incredible Charleston historian) motioned and up flew an Owl from the waters edge.
The light was almost gone before we even started off for the Bamboo.
We did manage a few shots.
The Owl just sat and waited for whatever he could find moving. Dark was fine with him. For me, I wanted to be able to see a little while walking back out to the car.
Oh yeah, this is a Great Egret, or will be soon. You can see the bad attitude on the face already.
In theory these juveniles could leave home after approximately 2 months. However…some take a little longer.
This time of year they spend 90% of their time doing absolutely nothing, 5% thinking about mating, and 5% thinking of food.
Hmmm, sounds a lot like a teenage boy.
