As usual, all the ducks swam to the far side of the pond this morning when I arrived. However, because most of the pond is frozen, at least they were limited to the one half of the pond and I pretty much kept sight of them the entire time. After setting up (tripod and flash), my waiting began …
Every so often a few would move in closer to eye me up, but only to swim back to the rest of the group (I’d say there were about a dozen Mergransers and about a half dozen Black Ducks total). A few new ones would occasionally fly in and join the party.
At one point I heard something sound like it was getting out of the water about 20 feet away. Next thing I know I hear something in the woods behind me. I turned around and about eight feet away was a Mink! I made a couple noises so it knew I was there and it slowly wandered away. Too bad my camera was setup on the tripod facing the other direction.
Anywho, I digress, back to the ducks. After about one hour of wishing I had a coffee I heard a duck right along the shoreline but I couldn’t see it. I knew it was very close so I switched the focus limiter switch on my lens to off. A couple seconds later – eureka!
Full frame (no cropping) …
Note before leaving I ripped out some of the grass along the shoreline which was ruining half my shots (see example below) when the ducks came over to say hi – I’ll be all set tomorrow morning!
