wetlands

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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Flight of the Northern Pintail /  by Todd Henson

A Northern Pintail duck flying right in front of me. Click the image for a larger view.

It was mid-January in Northern Virginia and the weather was unseasonably warm. We walked along the boardwalk of the wetlands park watching several species of ducks swimming at a distance, along with the typical groups of Canada Geese. One species of duck that caught my eye, as it often does, was the Northern Pintail, named because of that distinctive tail, as seen in some of the included photos.

Northern Pintails are a beautiful duck. The males have a brown head with a white neck that makes them easy to identify. They have a light reddish-brown chest and light brownish-grey back. As with many duck species they have gorgeous colorful bars on their wings, most easily seen when they take flight. Photographing ducks in flight is something I always hope for, though it can be quite a challenge.

On this particular day I hadn’t gone out with the intention of photographing birds in flight. If I had, my gear of choice would likely have been my 200-400mm lens, perhaps with a 1.4x teleconverter to bring me in a little closer. But for this trip I wanted something a little lighter and less bulky, something I could hand hold with ease. And because my 70-200mm is currently on the fritz I borrowed my brother’s 70-300mm lens.

A male Northern Pintail swimming in the wetlands.

Instead of seeking out birds in flight I was looking for more static subjects. Because of this I’d turned off the continuous high speed shutter mode to keep from creating lots of images of the same thing. A continuous shutter is great for capturing action, but a waste of frames for still subjects. And then I saw the Northern Pintail swimming alone not that far from the boardwalk.

I should have switched back on continuous high shutter mode when I began photographing the pintail, but I don’t always think of these things fast enough. After all, the duck was peacefully swimming in the water, not moving all that fast. And though I still had the camera set to continuous low, continuous high would have better prepared me for what came next.

The Northern Pintail took flight.

Seemingly out of the blue the duck sprang from the water and took flight. I wasn’t prepared for this so I didn’t capture any images as it first left the water. But I was fortunate to get it in focus for a couple shots as it flew low over the water, droplets still falling from its wings. I didn’t expect much. The lens I was using isn’t the fastest lens. But it’s also a lens I don’t have much experience with, so I may have underestimated it.

Profile shot of the Northern Pintail in flight.

Because I wasn’t in continuous high I didn’t capture as many frames as I’d have liked, but I was thankful I still captured some. At one point I realized I’d lost focus, so I worked to track the duck and regain focus, worried I wouldn’t be able to. But the lens quickly locked back on as the duck gained elevation passing right in front of me. This created a nice profile view of the pintail in flight, still throwing off droplets of water. The final image shows the departing pintail and some of those beautiful color bars I’d mentioned on its wings.

The departing Northern Pintail shows its beautiful wings.

In the end I was very impressed with how this lens handled tracking a bird in flight. It did a better job than I’d expected and many of the out of focus frames I captured were more due to my poor technique and being unprepared than they were through any limitation of the lens. At this point I’m considering purchasing one as a reasonably light weight walk around lens. I wouldn’t get it specifically for birds in flight, but at least now I know it’s capable of that. And if I don’t end up purchasing one I likely will ask to borrow it again.

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Posing Belted Kingfisher /  by Todd Henson

A beautiful female Belted Kingfisher posing for the camera

As you can probably tell from its name, the Belted Kingfisher is a bird that hangs out around water where it dives below the surface catching fish. They’re fairly easy to identify, having a very distinctive look, behavior, and sound. You’ll often hear them first, sometimes from a fair distance as they have a loud call. If you follow the sound you may be fortunate to see them hovering over the water or diving below it.

One interesting feature of the Belted Kingfisher is that the female is more colorful than the male, unlike most species where the male is the more colorful one. The female has a beautiful rusty band across her stomach, in contrast with the male who’s chest and stomach are white. They both have a white ring around their neck, and are otherwise blue-gray with a great little crest of feathers atop their head.

A female Belted Kingfisher flicking her tail up

A female Belted Kingfisher with her tail down

I was fortunate this particular female landed very close by, perching atop a bare snag, watching the water below. She was quiet while perched, but exhibited interesting physical behaviors, flicking her tail up and down periodically. You can see this in a couple of the photographs, one showing the tail up and the other showing it down.

These photos were created a number of years ago in mid-October at Huntley Meadows Park in Fairfax County, Virginia. It’s a fantastic wetlands park, home to many different species, and well worth a visit.

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