Wildlife Photography across the Water: Huntley Meadows

Thursday, 10 March 2011

Huntley Meadows

I visited Huntley meadows today which is about a 40 min drive around DC from where i am in Reston, Its a lilltle oasis in the middle of suburbia, From the car park you have a 10 minute walk to the start of the boardwalks, The walk is through a large tract of very nice woodland, The first thing that you notice when you reach the boardwalk is the beaver activity-lots of small felled trees and within a couple of minutes you come across the first of the 3 beaver dens that i viewed, its right next to the boardwalk and you can not miss it, If you want to see beaver then i guess this is the places as they are obviously very active-probably at night and dawn and dusk, There were a few mums and kids around when i arrived and an early start would be best, The boardwalks take you through dense reed beds to a largish lake, I could see mallard,teal,heron and gulls, the teal were as usual very shy and soon moved out and away from my area, I went down a muddy track to a very boggy marshy area and along with more mallards were a pair of Hooded Mergansers-one of my favorite American wildfowl, It took me some time to get into position without spooking them and then a watched and waited for about an hour before i had the chance to take any images-nothing to write home about but as i dont get to shoot these very often it was a pleasure just to sit and watch, I will be going back on Friday when the weather is supposed to be better and will make a very early start, I would love to have a place like this on my doorstep, There are meant to be a good head of deer and fox which i can believe as there is great habitat for them
I used my D7000 with the 600 and 1.4x to get as much reach as i could, I shot at ISO 400 which gave an OK shutter speed although another stop would have been nice-waders would have also been nice as i was rather damp after sitting tucked up next to dead tree but as this was my first time here and just a 'day out' i was glad to get anything
Mallard

Eastern Kingbird (i think)

Hooded Mergansers

Beaver alert

Dave

2 comments:

Kah-Wai Lin10 March 2011 at 18:22
Nice capture! I like the reflection shot of Mergansers:)

Kah Wai
http://kwbirding.blogspot.com/
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Julian11 March 2011 at 20:21
Lovely light - nice set of images Dave.
Rgds
Julian
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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.