Red-breasted Merganser Surfacing - Favorites #1

One of the reasons I started a blog was to motivate me to select a number of favorite images and compile, for each, information about location, shooting conditions, equipment used and other pertinent information. This is the first of an intermittent series of blog entries of unknown length using the Favorites heading.

The image of the Red-breasted Merganser surfacing near the shrimp boats docked at Joe Patti's Seafood in Pensacola Florida was taken in Jan. 2009, before the BP oil spill while the boats were still actively working.

Shrimp boats docked at Joe Patti's Seafood, Pensacola FL

The "spill" from unloading and cleaning the vessels generated a lot of bird activity. The mergansers were very cautious. They came into the docking area, fed for a short time, swam out into deeper water for a variable time, and then made another excursion into the docking area. As they swam out into deeper water the birds would "submarine", swimming for a long distance with the head and most of the body underwater but with part of the back still visible, and only periodically raise the head out of the water before submerging it again. I could not get the picture I wanted standing on the dock opposite the shrimp boats. I wanted a lower perspective. At low tide I was able to hide in reeds near the entrance to the docking area and photograph the birds as they entered and exited. The conjunction of low tide, sunrise, and cooperative birds occurred on the third morning I was trying to capture this shot.


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Reflections of the shrimp boats bottom paint produced the blue in the waves . 

Nikon D300, 300mm f/4 lens + 1.7x tc.
1/1250 sec at f/6.7, ISO 560, handheld

 

David Sparks

I retired in 2005 after 40 years of research and teaching at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (24 years), the University of Pennsylvania (8 years) and the Baylor College of Medicine (8 years). Photography is my retirement hobby.

Nature photography, especially bird photography, combines a number of things that I really enjoy: bird-watching, being outdoors, photography, travel, messing about with computers, and learning new skills and concepts.  I now spend much of my time engaged in these activities.

David Sibley in the preface to The Sibley Guide to Birds wrote "Birds are beautiful, in spectacular as well as subtle ways; their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature."  My goal is to acquire images that capture the beauty and uniqueness of selected species as well as images that highlight the engaging behaviors the birds exhibit.