The elusive wood duck

[clovishound]

They are trying to get rid of the alligator weed at the Audubon Swamp. Apparently, it discourages a lot of waterfowl. They recently dredged the smaller, shallower portions of the swamp (it's an old rice field). This cleared the alligator weed that was choking the water's surface with a thick mat. This is supposed to encourage more waterfowl to use the swamp. The large pond where these pics were taken is still pretty choked up with duckweed, but this, apparently, isn't the issue that alligator weed is. That stuff is thick enough that plants will start to take root and grow on the mat of alligator weed and leaf detritus that accumulates on the surface of the water.

[clovishound]

Well, not a wood duck, but this teal let me get closer than the wood ducks.

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It was a beautiful day at the Swamp. Cold and a thick mist over the water. The picture does not convey the sense of wispy softness. It was worth getting up early and driving over half an hour just to see it.

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And yes there were wood ducks.

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[CT_Shooter]

Excellent photography, CH. It deserves copyright protection. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[clovishound]

Well, I don't worry too much about it when I post here, but I recently joined a FB group for photographers at the Audubon Swamp. When you post a picture on a FB page, FB can use it. FB claims it's just a convenience to how they post pages, but if you read the TOS it gives them the right to use your photo. I've not heard of any egregious behavior yet, but I decided to start watermarking anything I post on it. It's easier to just watermark all of the JPEGs I save, than to watermark some, and not others. Actually, all of my files have my name embedded as the copyright holder. Adding a watermark just puts a visible additional layer on it. I probably should switch to a more sophisticated watermark. FYI, you can load an add-on to your browser that will allow you to view the EXIF data of a posted photo. This will give info about the copyright holder, dates, camera and lens info, exposure data and so forth. I've even seen focus distance on some photos. It works great, except for photos posted on FB. It looks like they strip the data from the files, although to be fair, the copyright holder data is still there.

I don't sell any of my photos right now, but that could change in the future. The Pup is thinking about selling hers, and I may include some of my better stuff in with hers to broaden the selection. Not sure how well any of my stuff would sell next to hers, but I do have a different sphere of interest than her, although there is some overlap.

[clovishound]

Looks like there are more wood ducks in the pipeline.

And for the superstitious, there is one little quacker out of frame.

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[Hatchdog]

^^^^^^^^^^^

Gotta love a family picture.

[clovishound]

Well, I put on ly new snake boots and headed back over to the swamp. There was a family of wood ducks that didn't seems as skittish as usual. Unfortunately, none were males in their breeding plumage. Also, there was too much foliage in the way, and I couldn't get a good clear shot.

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Got my first look at a whistling duck.

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[Hatchdog]

That first pic with the ducks peeking thru the brush works very well. I think even tho it’s not a clear shot of the ducks themselves it is a wonderful picture. I like it!

[clovishound]

I got several nice, close up, clear shot of one of the ducks. Unfortunately, they were all with the duck facing away from me. I was hoping she would turn around, but no such luck. At least the whistling duck, and an ibis were very cooperative.

Here's another from the same series.

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[clovishound]

Got a few more this morning.

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Mom's got her eye on you!

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[Hatchdog]

Awesome, love those greens in the pic, especially the small plants growing up from the water. A good example of what I’m talking about is one that is directly in front of one of the ducks.

[clovishound]

I was rather surprised with their behavior. Usually, woodies won't let you get very close at all. I was walking down a trail, and saw this group of young ducks in the swamp beside the trail. It was heavily shadowed by trees, and full of duck weed and other growth. I was very quiet and careful sneaking up on them, and they didn't spook, although they obviously knew I was there. Light levels were very low, forcing me to use high ISOs which resulted in noisy pictures. Topaz did a good job of taking care of that. Lots of plants in the way of clear shots. Don't know if I can get close to them like this next time I go, I've been along this trail several times and never seen them there before.

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[clovishound]

There's one in every crowd!

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[clovishound]

Here's one I overlooked when editing yesterday.

Had to crop it a good bit, but Gigapixel came through for me.

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[clovishound]

This year's little one's are getting bolder around people. Still wouldn't let me get that close, but closer than I used to be able to get.

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They have a lot more to worry about from this guy than from me.

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[Hatchdog]

Man, that big lizard takes my breath away. So ugly it’s almost pretty.

[clovishound]

Around here that's a medium sized lizard.

This is a decent sized one. I didn't have a wide enough lens to get him all in.

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[clovishound]

Made an spur of the moment trip over to Cypress this afternoon. Didn't expect much, but wanted to see if the insects were starting to come out. They weren't. There were a pair of wood ducks, however. Not quite as skiddish as last year.

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This egret was fairly cooperative, although he was obviously wary of me. Close enough I had to back off to 310mm to get the entire bird in frame.

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[clovishound]

Got back out today and saw lots and lots of wood ducks. They saw me a long way off as well.

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[Mags]

We had a couple Mergansers this morning.