Great Marsh

A Return to Great Marsh Looking For Tundra Swans /  by Todd Henson

In early February of 2024 my father and I returned to Mason Neck hoping to see the tundra swans that winter over in this area. We’ve been fortunate to see them in previous years, and were able to see them again this year, though at quite a distance.

I’d checked the tide charts before we set out and found high tide coincided with sunrise so we thought there was a good chance of viewing the swans. I thought it might be nice viewing them from the opposite shore we did last time, thinking this would position the sun in a more flattering location. Unfortunately, the day was completely overcast, so rather dark, and the tundra swans chose to group on the far side of the marsh, much closer to the other observation platform. This put them at quite a distance from us.

The Wildlife

Distant tundra swans at Great Marsh

Even at a distance, though, it was great to see and hear the tundra swans. They have a very distinctive sound so we always know when we’ve found them. We were fortunate to watch as two more swans flew in and landed with the rest.

Distant observation platform and tundra swans

Two more tundra swans fly in

There was quite a range of birdlife, and wildlife, beyond the tundra swans. In one scene I attempted to capture tundra swans, a red-winged blackbird, mallard ducks and Canada geese in a single image. I wasn’t able to do this with just one photo, though, because of the shallow depth of field. The low light just wouldn’t allow me a reasonable balance of ISO, aperture and shutter speed, so I decided to try focus stacking by focusing on the near birds for one photo and the far birds for another. But of course the birds were moving, so using the software to auto focus stack didn’t work and I had to manually merge the photos. If you look closely this resulted in a strange bit of out of focus brown grass in the center of the photo between the blackbird and the swans, but it did bring each bird species mostly in focus so you could see them all.

From top to bottom: tundra swans, a red-winged blackbird, a pair of mallard ducks and a pair of Canada geese.

At one point a beaver swam across the water towards its lodge. And later a muskrat swam right towards us. These were the only mammals we saw this time around.

A beaver on the left and a muskrat on the right swimming through the water. The beaver is actually much larger but was at a much greater distance so looks smaller in the photo.

There is a lot of duck hunting in this area, so even though the ducks are safe in this location they still tend to either fly off or swim far away when we arrive at the observation platform. That meant all photos were at a distance, but we still were able to view a range of ducks. The ones in these photos are, I believe, mostly American black ducks. There were the mallards in the photo above. And I saw a pair of hooded merganser and several other species at a greater distance.

A pair of American black ducks. They were sort of swimming together with one following the other, but they didn’t get close enough for a single photo of them both.

Ducks at Great Marsh. I believe most, if not all of these, are American black ducks, though I may be mistaken.

The last interesting scene to show you was a noisy flock of black birds that started out moving through the trees and later moved around the light brown grass in the water. I believe most of these birds were common grackles but I also identified some red-winged blackbirds. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were other species in the mix, such as European starlings, but I wasn’t able to positively identify any more.

A group of black birds flocking at Great Marsh. Most are likely common grackles but I was also able to identify red-winged blackbirds. There might be other species mixed in, as well.

The Challenges

There were a number of challenges to this photo session. With the low light levels and the moving birds I boosted my camera’s light sensitivity way up (to 4000 ISO) so I could get a fast enough shutter speed, but this meant there would be a fair bit of digital noise in the files. Because of the distance there was a slight bit of haze to deal with. And because I don’t photograph with the long lens quite as often I was likely out of practice. All this resulted in photos that aren’t perfectly sharp, though I did the best I could to deal with these issues in post-production in the computer. They work just fine for a blog post but some might not work as well if I were to try to print them in a larger format. I tend to prefer creating imperfect photos than not creating any at all, especially when documenting wildlife. 😊

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Mason Neck Great Marsh in Snow /  by Todd Henson

In the latter half of January Northern Virginia received a small amount of snow that stuck around long enough my father and I were able to get out for a hike through the woods of Mason Neck. We hoped we might see some tundra swans in the snow as it’s the time of year they can be found in the area. But more importantly, it had been a while since we’d gone walking and the thought of walking in the snow was very appealing (though the gusty wind was not). We left the house later than we usually would because I was worried about possibly icy roads, so we arrived in the parking lot around 9:23 am.

Forest

The first photo shows the information shelter near the parking lot. It gives an idea of the amount of snow, perhaps a couple inches, and that plenty of others had already walked this trail.

The information shelter at the beginning of the Great Marsh trail at Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge.

Along with the snow were some very gusty winds that kept blowing long after the snow stopped falling. We found many trees with snow blown right up their sides, some even further than the example here.

Snow blown up the side of a tree.

I don’t photograph in snow very often so I did struggle a bit trying to find pleasing views. I enjoyed this one perhaps because of the fallen tree and the patterns of light and shadow on the snow.

A simple woodland snow scene with light and shadow.

Observation Platform

Just before 10 am we arrived at the observation platform that overlooks the Great Marsh. You can see the frozen marsh, and if you look very close you might just see the observation platform on the opposite shore in the center of the photo.

Approaching the Great Marsh observation platform.

Here’s a closer view of the platform. On the right is a telescopic viewer to let folks without their own gear get a closer view of things in the distance. To the left of the Great Marsh is the Potomac River, and the marsh continues to the right, getting smaller as it winds into the woods.

The Great Marsh observation platform in the snow.

Great Marsh

Here is a view of the Great Marsh, looking out from the observation platform towards the distant shore. That rectangular chunk of snow near the middle of the far shore is the other observation platform. And you can see the channel where the water flows. It appears this was low tide as the water level is extremely low, which might help explain why we didn’t see any swans in the area: no water for them to swim in! 😁

The Great Marsh at Mason Neck covered in snow.

This is a view to the right from the observation platform showing how the water channel winds its way around.

Waterways of Great Marsh in snow.

I zoomed in to show the creek and how the ice was hanging over it, the water having receded.

Ice and the waterway.

And here I zoomed in on the distant observation platform. That’s where we first viewed tundra swans last year. We chose to visit this platform this trip because of the snow. I was concerned the slightly more hilly trail on the other side might be slick and icy.

The distant observation platform of Great Marsh.

Here’s another view of the distant shore, this time a little to the right of the distant observation platform. I liked the light brown tones of the grass and reeds with the snow covered trees in the distance. Bonus for those of you who can spot the adult bald eagle perched in the branches of a tree a little bit right of center.

The far shore of Great Marsh in the snow with light brown grass and reeds.

Wildlife

Though we didn’t see the tundra swans up close we did get to see a little wildlife, though all at a distance. Some of the photos below are of very poor quality both because I may not have brought them into sharp focus and because I massively cropped the images so you could see the birds and not just blobs in the distance.

This is a well-known area for seeing bald eagles and we were fortunate to see both adult and juvenile eagles flying by. I only captured an image of a juvenile in flight but I did watch an adult as it landed beside its mate and captured an image of the two. The one on the left is facing away from us and the other is facing this way.

Two views of bald eagles at Great Marsh, one of an adult pair in a tree, and another of a juvenile in flight.

At one point we watched another large bird in the distance flying just above the ground surveying below. I couldn’t identify it in the field but after looking through the photos and comparing its behavior to descriptions in field guides I’m reasonably confident it was a northern harrier. I wish it had flown much closer as it’s a beautiful bird.

Four very distant views of what I believe to be a northern harrier.

Another distant visitor to the Great Marsh was a red fox. I first watched it move from the left to the right where it disappeared. At that time I had on my wide angle lens so there was no way to photograph it. Later, after I’d switched to my longest lens, it moved back from the right to the left, and though it was moving just beyond the brown grass/reeds I did manage to capture a view of it looking back over it’s shoulder to the right. Also notice how close it was to the observation platform on the distant shore. I really wish we could have seen the fox from that vantage point. 

A red fox at a distance in the snow at Great Marsh on Mason Neck.

Parting Views

The wind was starting to whip around and our faces were getting cold standing still on the platform, so just before 11 am we decided to head back to the car. But before we did I captured a couple parting views. The first shows blue sky just beginning to appear.

A parting view shows blue sky just beginning to appear over the snow covered Great Marsh at Mason Neck.

The final view is facing the Potomac River, and in the distance towards the right you may notice a bunch of white bumps in the water. I wonder if perhaps those were some of the tundra swans we’d hoped to see?

Could those be the tundra swans in the distance?

Kaeru in the snow at Mason Neck. 😁

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Sunrise, Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge, January 2023 /  by Todd Henson

Sunrise, Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge, January 7, 2023

In mid to late-December, 2022, my father and I hiked trails at Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia. It’s a location I don’t get to all that often and because of that we thought it would be a good place to revisit. While there we heard these extremely loud birds out in the marsh and wondered what they were. I only had my wide angle lens with me so the best I could do was capture some very distant images and record a little audio, which was enough to later identify the birds as tundra swans, a species that winters over in this area each year.

There was a time when the only lens I brought with me was my longest lens and wildlife was, by far, my most common subject, with birds being what I most sought out. Since then I’ve branched out and now I seek out many more subjects, but I’m still very drawn to birds and other wildlife. So finding these tundra swans and learning they overwinter here lit a fire in me to photograph them. So on New Year’s Day, 2023, my father and I returned to the refuge with my big lens (and my wide angle, just in case). As luck would have it, it was a very foggy morning so any birds we saw out in the marsh were just silhouettes in the fog. It also happened to be low tide and the swans seem to prefer slightly deeper water, meaning they were much further away than they’d been in December. We could hear them but not see them.

I checked the tide charts and found that January 7th would have a high tide at the marsh right around the 7-8 am time period, so we planned to give it another try. And luck was with us. We did get the chance to watch a small number of tundra swans out in the marsh as they woke up, stretched, and started their day. They were still at a distance but with my long lens I was able to create some decent images of them.

But wait a minute, you might say. There’s not a single tundra swan in the photograph I’m presenting today. What does any of this have to do with the story behind this image? Well, the story is that I never expected to create this image. I was focused on the tundra swans. But thankfully I also brought my wide angle lens and we just happened to arrive at the observation platform not long after sunrise. So I brought up my camera with the wide angle lens and quickly created a series of handheld images of sunrise over the Great Marsh. The river you see in the background is the Potomac River. And the land in the distance on the other side of the Potomac River is Maryland.

So the lesson of the day is one I’ve relearned many times. Always be open to the unexpected. Even if you go out with a single goal in mind, be open to the possibilities nature presents you. You just never know what you’ll find, though with time you learn some of those possibilities and can prepare for them.

And about those tundra swans, I do hope to share some photos of them with you in the not too distant future. Nothing spectacular, but a nice collection of photos I’m happy with that represent some of the behaviors we observed.

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