The elusive wood duck

[clovishound]

Got a few more this morning.

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Mom's got her eye on you!

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[Hatchdog]

Awesome, love those greens in the pic, especially the small plants growing up from the water. A good example of what I’m talking about is one that is directly in front of one of the ducks.

[clovishound]

I was rather surprised with their behavior. Usually, woodies won't let you get very close at all. I was walking down a trail, and saw this group of young ducks in the swamp beside the trail. It was heavily shadowed by trees, and full of duck weed and other growth. I was very quiet and careful sneaking up on them, and they didn't spook, although they obviously knew I was there. Light levels were very low, forcing me to use high ISOs which resulted in noisy pictures. Topaz did a good job of taking care of that. Lots of plants in the way of clear shots. Don't know if I can get close to them like this next time I go, I've been along this trail several times and never seen them there before.

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[clovishound]

There's one in every crowd!

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[clovishound]

Here's one I overlooked when editing yesterday.

Had to crop it a good bit, but Gigapixel came through for me.

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[clovishound]

This year's little one's are getting bolder around people. Still wouldn't let me get that close, but closer than I used to be able to get.

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They have a lot more to worry about from this guy than from me.

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[Hatchdog]

Man, that big lizard takes my breath away. So ugly it’s almost pretty.

[clovishound]

Around here that's a medium sized lizard.

This is a decent sized one. I didn't have a wide enough lens to get him all in.

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[clovishound]

Made an spur of the moment trip over to Cypress this afternoon. Didn't expect much, but wanted to see if the insects were starting to come out. They weren't. There were a pair of wood ducks, however. Not quite as skiddish as last year.

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This egret was fairly cooperative, although he was obviously wary of me. Close enough I had to back off to 310mm to get the entire bird in frame.

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[clovishound]

Got back out today and saw lots and lots of wood ducks. They saw me a long way off as well.

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