Action images are always one of the goals of a wildlife photographer. Nature is in constant motion, and capturing a frozen moment in time is always exciting. Here are my favorite action shots of 2013.
Blue-winged Teal in flight. As you can see, even 1/1600 of a second didn’t entirely freeze this duck’s wings. But that’s okay. I think a bit of motion blur in the wings adds to the photo, making it a bit less static. Of course, this wouldn’t be acceptable for the head. Near the St. Louis River, Duluth, Minnesota.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f6.3 at 1/1600 second, ISO 200, handheld]

Backlit Trumpeter Swans coming in for a landing. If you are anywhere near Minneapolis, Minnesota, you’ve got to make a mid-winter pilgrimage to this tiny city park in Monticello. This stretch of the Mississippi River stays open and ice-free the entire winter due to the nuclear power plant upstream. And the swans love it! They also get a free hand out from one of the local residents. I like the backlit wings and blue shadows of this image. See the full story here.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f5.6 at 1/1250 second, ISO 250, handheld]

[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f6.3 at 1/1600 second, ISO 320, tripod from blind]

This is a shot that I’d dreamed of for quite a while…a Sharp-tailed Grouse dancing atop the snow in morning light. It happened this year (2013) on my first trip out to the DNR blind near the lek (dancing grounds). It was April 26th and there was 8 inches os snow still on the ground (We’d had 48 inches of snow in April alone!). It was cloudy on my drive out but the clouds cleared soon after I got there. Long enough to get my dream shot. Carlton County, Minnesota.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f6.3 at 1/1600 second, ISO 320, tripod from blind]

I like animal behavior shots. This is a pair of Killdeer mating soon after returning to the North Woods in late April. Sax-Zim Bog, Minnesota.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f6.3 at 1/1600 second, ISO 100, handheld]

Common Merganser flying through a snowstorm in April. Duluth, Minnesota near the St. Louis River.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f5.6 at 1/640 second, ISO 160, tripod from blind]

I placed this perch in a marsh in hopes a Belted Kingfisher would use it…and within 10 minutes or so, one did! It even caught a fish from the perch. See the full story here.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f5.6 at 1/2000 second, ISO 320, tripod from blind]

Out on a spring walk, I evidently got too close to a Bald Eagle nest. This bird made several passes at me, giving its very squeaky alarm call. Douglas County, Wisconsin.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f5.6 at 1/2500 second, ISO 200, handheld]

A plastic owl festooned with feathers from a feather duster enticed this American Kestrel to come in for a closer look. The male of this small falcon species is rusty-red and blue, an attractive combo. Hawk Ridge, Duluth, Minnesota. See the full story here
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, Manual exposure f7.1 at 1/2000 second, ISO 500, handheld]

Northern Hawk Owl hovering. These owls of remote bogs from Minnesota to Alaska hunt during the daytime…A very convenient trait for the wildlife photographer! Sax-Zim Bog, Minnesota.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f6.3 at 1/2500 second, ISO 640, handheld]

Sparky all dressed up with SOMEWHERE to go!
Kimmes-Tobin Wetlands, Douglas County, Wisconsin

It was a gorgeous afternoon in Duluth yesterday…Absolutely clear, sunny, and about 70 degrees. I knew I had to get out of the office and into my floating blind ASAP (“floating hide” according to the Brits). So Bridget and I picked up the kids at daycare and grabbed a take-out Hugo’s Pizza on the way home (1/2 green olive and black olive, and 1/2 sausage and mushroom if you must know…Best pizza in Duluth…Thin and greasy!) This expedited the usually lengthy dinner circus so I could get out to the marsh before sunset.

Fortunately for me, we live only five miles from one of the best and most expansive cattail marshes for many miles around. Kimmes-Tobin Wetlands is a string of manmade wetland mitigation ponds created in 1993 on 470 acres by the Wisconsin DNR to replace wetlands lost through the construction of US53, WI35 and WI13. I stepped into my new neoprene waders that Bridget got me for father’s day…Luxurious compared to the last few pairs of leaky hand-me downs. Pulled on my camo mask and eased the PVC floating blind into the water. There’s a few things you seem to conveniently forget between your trips…
1. Swamp gas really stinks!
2. Leeches thrive in these ponds
3. Muck and pond weeds are not easy to crawl through
4. Cold water ALWAYS spills over the top of your waders just as you’re leaning over to take an award-winning shot.
5. Every thing your leg bumps into under water MUST be a feisty Snapping Turtle
6. …and Wood Ducks are notoriously spooky!

It was nice just being out…even though it was under the dome of visibility-limiting camo netting. Not a breath of wind…Not a cloud on the horizon. A pair of striped juvenile Pied-billed Grebes gave me the slip…Too bad, they are interesting looking birds, Then in quick succession a female Mallard and two Wood Ducks wanted no part of this floating green and brown blob with one giant eye. But then I spotted a pair of loafing juvenile Wood Ducks. They seemed pretty relaxed on their log, so I slowly worked my way towards them.

juvenile Wood Ducks [Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 on ball head with Wimberly Sidekick, f5.6 at 1/1000 ISO 200]

Sora [Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 on ball head with Wimberly Sidekick, f5.6 at 1/1000 ISO 200]

Time to head home…So I plucked a few leeches off me, jettisoned about 100 pounds of pond weeds that were clinging to my legs, and waded to the narrow canal leading to my take out point…Then a movement caught my eye…It was a juvenile Sora coming out of its safe zone in the cattails to feed on a tiny mudflat. The light was golden and hit the Sora like a spotlight. I underexposed by a stop and a half so to keep the background black and keep the bird from blowing out. I was less than 25 feet away!

Virginia Rail juvenile stretching [Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 on ball head with Wimberly Sidekick, f5.6 at 1/250 ISO 1000]

A second rail was coming out to the flats…I assumed it was a second Sora, but turned out to be a Virginia Rail…Even more unusual than the Sora. It is a bird restricted to cattail marshes and we have few this far north. This was a juvenile also…Not as colorful as the adult but still a striking bird. By now the spotlight of sun was gone and it only backlit its hind end. But this rail put on a show. Check out the brief video clip (excuse the slight motion from trying to keep the blind stable while shooting). This is the real beauty of the floating blind…You could NEVER get this close to any rail, let alone watch it feeding, bathing and stretching. Oh, and did I mention that a Muskrat swam within five feet of me?

Virginia Rail juvenile [Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 on ball head with Wimberly Sidekick, f5.6 at 1/200 ISO 640]

frog [Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 on ball head with Wimberly Sidekick, f5.6 at 1/1000 ISO 200]

p.s. I have instructions on how to make a floating blind on my DVD (and much more video): Get Close & Get the Shot: Wildlife Photography Tips & Tricks. Available for purchase (DVD or download) at www.getclosevideo.com

That’s “daffy duck-displays” not “Daffy Duck displays!” For years I’ve been trying to capture the comic breeding displays of the Hooded Mergansers and Common Goldeneyes. Mostly unsuccessful in years past, this spring I did have a modicum of success. When several males are vying for one female, the action gets intense. Male Goldeneyes extend their necks vertically then throw their head violently backwards at the same time as their tail end comes up (so far that their feet actually come out of the water!) and bleat a cute toy-like buzz [See video below].

Hooded Mergansers have a similar display but with a Vegas-worthy addition—they fan their black and white head feathers into an out-of-proportion crest. The Hooded Merg pictured below is only at “half mast” …but check out the video to see the full-on craziness of a bunch of sex-addled males along the St. Louis River in late March.

The video shows the displays better than the stills. To see the full-sized video go to http://www.vimeo.com/23114536

Stills and Video with the Canon 7D, Canon 400mm f5.6, AT-897 shotgun microphone, Gitzo tripod.

Every spring there is a narrow window of time when the ice on the area rivers and lakes is breaking up and the migrating ducks are forced to feed near shore. The early ducks are mostly ducks that feed by diving for small fish and crustaceans. Late March and early April is the time to get out and crawl across the ice to try and shoot these colorful and hardy ducks. Above is a Hooded Merganser taking off from a small patch of ice-free Perch Lake near Fond du Lac, Duluth.

To semi-camouflage myself, I would set up a tripod and drape some camo material over it and hide behind it. I could then sit or lay down behind it until some ducks drifted by. For the most part, these early diving ducks are very wary and anything strange and out of the ordinary along the shoreline would send them frantically flying for safer waters.

“Sawbill” is an old colloquial name for Common Mergansers. Serrations on their bill aid in gripping slippery, slimy fish. They breed in extreme northeast Minnesota on large lakes. Much larger (2 feet long) than its smaller cousin, the Hooded (18 inches long).

Common Goldeneyes are around most of the winter on Lake Superior (if there is open water) but breed in the U.S. only in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and the U.P. of Michigan (some in Montana). They are commonly seen in the BWCA near rapids. Their extremely cute ducklings are little black and white fuzzballs. The top photo is a male with iridescent green head.

Female Common Goldeneyes also have gold-colored eyes but lack the males glossy green head plumage. Every time this little lady dove, I crawled across the ice, eventually working my way up to the edge of the ledge ice. Minutes later, I heard cracking sounds and quickly backed off!