In late January my father and I picked Leesylvania State Park as our destination for a morning nature hike. We’d not been to that location in a while and there was the chance we might see some of the wintering over tundra swans closer to shore. We struck out as far as that goes. We didn’t see or hear a single tundra swan. But we did see a number of interesting birds.
None of these are stellar examples of bird photography. It was a grey overcast morning and the light was sometimes very uninteresting. In many cases I didn’t nail the focus. In most there is noticeable noise if you look closely enough. But none of this stopped us from enjoying a sunrise hike and taking advantage of the opportunity to observe and photograph some birds. Not every outing will result in stunning photography, but every outing can be an opportunity to practice photography, to practice identifying bird species, and to enjoy the simple act of getting together and going for a walk in nature.
Bufflehead Ducks
The first bird we noticed was a male bufflehead duck swimming in the waters just inside some rocks nearest to shore. Before long we realized there were two buffleheads, a male and female.
