Field Notes Update

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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Winter Heat Wave Heron /  by Todd Henson

A Great Blue Heron with beautiful plumage seen atop a tree felled by a beaver in the woods of a wetlands park.

Most of the Great Blue Herons migrate south for the winter, but some choose to stick around Northern Virginia, a potential risk if it happens to be a bad winter. But so far this has not been a bad winter, in fact we just recently had a heat wave that brought temperatures up around 70 degrees Fahrenheit in mid-January. This must have pleased the herons still in the area.

While hiking my favorite wetlands park during this heat wave we stumbled across one special Great Blue Heron, or at least one I found to be special. First off, we encountered it back in the woods, not out on the open wetlands lake. Granted, the water does sometimes extend into the woods, as it was this day, but most of the herons I’ve seen have been around the open water.

The Great Blue Heron seen through the trees, standing atop a fallen tree.

The heron was perched atop a tree felled by one of the local beavers. It was watching the water below, keeping a keen eye on anything moving below the surface. It was far enough away from the trail not to be disturbed by people passing by, even loud children. At one point we watched as it stretched out its long neck, leaning towards the water, preparing to strike… Only to slowly bring its neck back in and once again stand straight on the tree. Apparently its prey had moved away.

Another element that made this particular Great Blue Heron special to me was its fantastic plumage. Look closely at those beautiful long white feathers displayed on its chest and along its back. I always love the opportunity to watch, study, and photograph birds with such beautiful plumage. It just makes me smile.

In this image we can see the Great Blue Heron straight on, a different view than the typical profile shots.

We slowly moved down the trail as my father would move ahead and point out locations that had interesting views of the heron. I photographed from several of these locations, looking for different backgrounds, trying to find cleaner compositions, something that can be a challenge in a wooded environment. In most locations I kneeled down on the ground, trying to shoot from the herons height, or below it.

At one point the Great Blue began stretching, so I stayed still and took advantage of the motor drive to capture as many images as I could of this behavior. I knew from past experience this often preceded shaking and preening, behaviors I love capturing. In the images you can see examples of the stretching, which was following by shaking, where the heron literally shakes its entire body back and forth, puffing up its feathers, before settling back down. After the stretching, shaking and puffing the heron began preening, where it stretches into all sorts of interesting positions to maintain its feathers, cleaning, straightening, perhaps plucking old damaged ones.

The Great Blue Heron stretches one leg and wing. Look closely at the foot of the leg being stretched.

The Great Blue Heron stretching both wings and puffing its feathers just a bit.

I enjoy watching Great Blue Herons shake back and forth, airing out those feathers.

After shaking the Great Blue Heron begins preening.

The final feature that made this Great Blue Heron special was its feet, or more specifically one of its feet. Look closely at the images and you may see something unique about its left foot. I’ve included some zoomed in details to give you a better view. The heron is missing all its front toes on that one foot. It only has the single back toe. I suppose it’s possible this could be a birth defect, but my guess is it waded too close to one of the many large snapping turtles that inhabit this wetlands. The turtles are very quiet and move very slowly, just as herons do. They wait for something to move within reach, then they stretch out their long neck and grab at the prey, whatever it is, again, just as herons do. It can be a tough world out there, but in this case the heron appears to get along fine without the toes. I do wonder, though, if the missing toes might be why it was deeper in the woods instead of out on open water?

A zoomed in closeup showing the herons feet. The left foot, seen here on the right, is missing all its front toes. You can see the back toe standing out behind.

A zoomed in closeup showing the missing toes on the Great Blue Herons left foot. It only has the single rear toe.

These situations are always difficult for me to walk away from. Sometimes I’ll stay put until the animal moves away, provided I’m not stressing it by being there. If I’m stressing it I move away quickly. In this case the animal wasn’t at all stressed. But herons can stay put for hours at a time. I don’t always want to stay in one spot for that length of time, so eventually we moved on, leaving this special Great Blue Heron standing atop the fallen tree, perhaps continuing to peer below the surface of the water looking for its next meal.

Click on any of the photographs for a larger view.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at a special Great Blue Heron. Have you seen similar deformities or injuries in wildlife you’ve observed?

Red Badges of Courage /  by Todd Henson

A male Red-winged Blackbird displaying its red epaulettes.

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Some birds, mostly males, have ways of slightly changing their looks, whether to attract a mate or aggressively mark their territory. One such species is the Red-winged Blackbird, a fairly common blackbird with red badges, or epaulettes, on its shoulders. You can often find these birds in large numbers around wetlands areas where they feed and nest. Adult males of the species are easy to identify because they are all black with a red badge on each shoulder, and sometimes a strip of yellow below the red.

This young Red-winged Blackbird (notice it still has brown tips to its feathers) is hiding its red feathers.

Now the young Red-winged Blackbird displays more of its red feathers.

I’ve observed these birds for years, and I was under the impression that some have much larger and bolder red epaulettes than others. I thought perhaps it was related to age, or just genetics. I’d seen some birds with very little red, whereas others had large, bold red badges. But it never occurred to me they controlled how much red was visible, even though it’s obvious when looking back through these photos.

While foraging on the ground this male Red-winged Blackbird covers most of its red feathers.

While calling the male Red-winged Blackbird uncovers its epaulettes and puffs out the red feathers.

A male Red-winged Blackbird showing less of its red epaulet.

Here the male Red-winged Blackbird shows more of the red epaulet while also calling.

I’ve recently been reading a fantastic book about the coloration of birds, titled National Geographic Bird Coloration, by Geoffrey E. Hill. It was here I learned about what is referred to as coverable badges, how some birds are able to cover their strongly colored feathers. The example he used was of Red-winged Blackbirds, and he described how they have a set of black feathers above their red epaulettes, which are the bold red patches of feathers on their shoulders. They are able to cover the red with these overlapping black feathers.

Here we see the male Red-winged Blackbird pushing out its shoulders making the red badge even more visible.

The red epaulettes of Red-winged Blackbirds can be used to attract mates and mark their territory. Hill describes how a male displaying its red epaulettes within the territory of another male is a very aggressive action and one often met with conflict. So the males need to display their red to attract a mate, but may want to hide their red when flying through another males territory. I suspect another time they may hide their red is when gathering nesting material, as may be seen in the photograph below. If a male will be flying back to its nest, I would imagine the last thing it would want is to reveal the location to another male.

A male Red-winged Blackbird foraging for nesting material completely hides it red epaulettes. All that is visible is the yellowish line of feathers below the covered red ones.

In this post I show several examples of male Red-winged Blackbirds showing and hiding their red epaulettes. In some examples you can see they not only control how much of the red is showing, but can also actively puff out the red so it stands above the black feathers. Look closely and you can see they even sometimes push their shoulders out, bringing more attention to those bold, red badges of courage.

See how this young male Red-winged Blackbird puffs out the red feathers of its epaulettes? They extend well above its black feathers.

Here is another view of a male Red-winged Blackbird puffing out the red feathers of its epaulet.

And one final view of those bold, red badges of courage being displayed by this male Red-winged Blackbird.

To learn more about bird coloration check out the book, National Geographic Bird Coloration by Geoffrey Hill, who is an ornithologist and professor of biology. Though intended for a broad audience, this book contains a huge amount of detailed information sure to excite anyone interested in ornithology. It’s not a quick and easy read, nor a college text book, but instead manages to tread that line between the two. I am absolutely loving it!