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| Category: | Nature
Photography
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Posted: | February 19, 2012 |
Mixed Media: |
Minor
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Artist Notes
On the last day of January, I had what was probably one of the best shots I have ever had. During this time I came across a duck that I had never seen before. It was a hooded Merganser mating pair. They are a small diving duck. They dive for fish, crayfish, crabs, and other water bugs. They would start in one place on our drainage lagoon or canal and pop up 25 or 30 yards from where they went under. They pretty much stayed to themselves. That was until one of the female mallards decided to pick on this poor little female duck. Well the mallards started a war. At the time there were twenty to thirty mallards in the canal. The male Hooded Merganser took great offense to the mallard picking on his lady. He would raise his neck as far as he could. This would make the white markings on the head expand tremendously. If the mallards didnâ??t leave then this little duck went to prove it is not the size of the duck that counts, it is the size of the fight in the duck that counts. In less than ten minutes he had driven every mallard from the canal. Here is some additional information on the hooded Merganser.
â??QUOTEâ??
The Hooded Merganser is the smallest of the three species of mergansers, also known as saw-bills or fish-ducks, found in North America. All mergansers have slender elongated serrated bills tipped with a hooked nail. These bills are ideally suited for capturing and controlling the slippery fish that make up a large part of their diet. They are extremely agile swimmers and divers but awkward on land because their legs are set well back on their bodies.
Hooded Mergansers are highly sexually dimorphic. Both sexes have a bushy erectile crest of head feathers which forms the distinctive "hood". In breeding males this hood has a large central white patch boldly bordered in black. When the hood is down, the visible white is reduced to a narrow band trailing back from the bright yellow eye. Females and non-breeding males have brown hoods that match the rest of their plumage.
The breeding male has a black face, neck and back. The breast and underparts are bright white. Two bold black lines running down the side of the bird separate the white of the breast from the finely vermiculated rufous flanks. The upperparts of the wings are blackish with white striping on the flight feathers. The underparts of the wings are light grey to nearly white.
The plumage of the females and non-breeding males is dusky brown throughout, lighter on the underparts and a richer reddish-brown in the crest. They also have some white striping on the wings. Males have entirely black bills. Females and juveniles have some orange coloration at the base of the bill and on the lower mandible. Females have dark brown eyes.
â??ENDQUOTEâ??
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/birds/facts/factsheets/fact-hoodmerganser.cfm
This picture was taken on January 31, 2012 at 10:27 AM. Beautiful Sunny Day.
It was taken with a Sony Alpha 330 with a Promaster 70-300 Lens. The settings were as follows:
Aperture (f-stop) =f-5.6, Shutter Speed = 1/200, ISO = 400, Metering = Center Weighted, Exposure Program = Aperture Priority, Exposure Bias = -.07, Hand Held.
Picnik
Crop
Sharpen
Exposure
Vignette
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Wrights Wow Pictures
John has been interested in photography for over 40 years. He thought that he was an excellent photographer John had taken over 20,000 pictures in his life time. In June of 2010 his wife purchased a Sony Alpha 330 and a course on line from jroush@roushstudios.com. He thought he knew a lot about taking pictures, but he found that he had not even scratched the surface about understanding the art of photography John is on his way to becoming a great photographer.
John's current adventure in photography began in the Paducah Kentucky area. Then job opportunities for his wife sent them to Colorado Springs Colorado for four months. He and his wife Jen now reside in a 55 plus community that borders on Old Tampa Bay in Clearwater FL. On the property there is a drainage lagoon that empties into Old Tampa Bay. It is a wild life photographers paradise. There has never been a time John has gone looking for wild life that he has not had the opportunity to capture a new bird in pict
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