Scratcher of heads, rubber of bellies
I’m amazed by how diverse the feathers on a single bird can be in size and shape and color and function. The feathers in the upper left are wet with rain, it was pouring up at Hurricane Ridge when I came across a handful of grouse that were huddling near some trees for a little protection from the elements. I had on a full complement of rain gear and was nice and dry, and thankfully my camera and lens had enough weather-sealing that they shook off the rain as well.
A gadwall takes a drink as he swims across Horse Lake. A bit of plant life is trailing from his bill, a leftover from a recent feeding session.
I closed out 2013 watching ducks on Horse Lake, such as this male American wigeon.
One of my favorite moments of spring is sitting in a meadow in the still of the morning and hearing a savannah sing.
I’ve often thought about creating an album called “You’ve Got a Little Something …” to highlight animals that are carrying around a bit of their environment they picked up along the way. Diving ducks like this lesser scaup sometimes surface with plants that snagged on their back during their last feeding foray, but they often shed them on their next (as happened here, she surfaced after her next dive with a clean back).
📷: Canon 7D | Canon 500mm + 1.4X
🗓️: December 29, 2011
I love photographing animals going about their lives in all kinds of weather, but the pouring rain didn’t bother this coot as it fed in a shallow lake, as it was already soaked from diving underwater to dislodge plants from the lakebed.
📷: Canon 7D | Canon 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4x III
🗓️: December 29, 2011
It was a mostly cloudy day but the sun peaked out early in the morning as I watched this shoveler feeding in Canvasback Lake but it ducked back behind the clouds not long after I took the picture and stayed there.
📷: Canon 7D | Canon 500mm + 1.4X
🗓️: December 31, 2011
A male shoveler on a peaceful winter morning in the Pacific Northwest.
An American coot ducks under a plant stem as it swims down a narrow section of open water in a channel that has mostly frozen over with a thin layer of ice.
A male bushtit pauses momentarily on our dogwood tree before visiting the suet feeder.
Boolie 