Watching them grow

[bajadreamer]

I watched a clutch of Mallard Ducks grow from last year. These are located at a small community pond near my house. Hard to believe she found a place to lay eggs as the pond is lined with cement. Were 6 to begin with, but 3 did not survive. The three that did have grown into immature adults. The head shot is one of those. The first shot was with a Canon 5D4 and 500 mm lens. The head shot was with a Canon R5 and a 400 mm lens. Both shots had small crops for composition.

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[Gongster]

Beautiful sharp shots.

 

[ssheipel]

Niiice!

 

[Icarus]

Particularly like the first shot. Very pleasing composition.

 

[Yezdi]

Superb shots...

 

[bajadreamer]

Thanks to everyone for looking. I find myself never quite satisfied with a picture I have taken. The first one was on a cloudy day-not enough light. The second one was in bright, harsh sunlight-too much light. Not sure I will ever take the "perfect" shot. Maybe I would not know one if I saw it.

 

[Manglo]

Good shots of the ducks. It's nice to see them growing up and survive in a dangeres environment.

 

[gordon_g]

Great shots... I had some mallards lay eggs in our Center court at work one year we all adopted them and once the adults were gone longer and longer we know we had to let them go, we waited for one morning they were all walking around and we opened the doors and let them all walk out of the building... was a very cool summer to have them even for the short time we did.

 

[Hawkeshead]

Super crisp and nice composition

 

[bajadreamer]

Good shots of the ducks. It's nice to see them growing up and survive in a dangeres environment.

Not sure what happened to the other 3 ducklings, but we have a good population of Cooper's Hawks around, so that is certainly the primary suspect.

 

[bajadreamer]

Great shots... I had some mallards lay eggs in our Center court at work one year we all adopted them and once the adults were gone longer and longer we know we had to let them go, we waited for one morning they were all walking around and we opened the doors and let them all walk out of the building... was a very cool summer to have them even for the short time we did.

Even if they are a common bird, even to point of being a pest, it is fun to watch them grow and develop. I can understand the thrill bird banders have in seeing their "wards" return each year.

 

[bajadreamer]

Super crisp and nice composition

Thank you. I was practicing using the tilt screen to get a very low perspective on the 2nd shot. Held the camera and lens just about water level and used the eye focus mode to keep on the duck.