Having published the “Top 14” last week, this is actually Photo 15, but still among my favorites: Gaining the trust of a bird is especially important to the photographic process, and for a female Common Loon to be so trusting as to permit a quiet, motionless boat to float a distance away from her days-old hatchling was inspiring. It gave that feeling of being accepted, feeling at one with nature, in touch with the pulse of the Northwoods with the 2 loons before us. The calm water and calm birds, the quiet morning on a still Minnesota lake is reflected in the depth of the image. The downy loon and the adult were separated by quite a bit of space, but the f-13 aperture kept both birds within the wider than usual area of focus. While many bird photographs create excitement and thrills, this image conveys a level of tranquility that’s probably unmatched in my photographs (330mm zoom lens, f-13 aperture, 1/800 shutter speed, 800 ISO).
I must admit that bird photography has consumed me like never before during the past year, and that’s probably why I’ve been more and more successful finding and photographing a broad variety of birds over the 4 distinct seasons. If birds excite you, bird photography will provide a creative outlet with a level of artistic flare, using a bird or birds as your subjects, without being able to direct or predict their actions or reactions. Bird photography is not easy, but it’s remarkably rewarding, and it’s so much fun to share your photos with others, which I’m lucky enough to do each week in The Birding Wire – thanks for the opportunity.
Yellow Warblers are tiny birds, but this female provided an opportunity to enlarge and crop the photo to make a statement about the sharpness of the image, which emphasizes the bird’s eye and details of the mosquito it has just snatched (600mm zoom lens, f-7 aperture, 1/1000 shutter speed, 800 ISO).
As reported last week, I narrowed more than 800 photographs down to 40, then shared my favorite best 14 photos last week. But that leaves a lot of photographs I would really like to share with you, so I picked more from my “Top 40” of 2024, with 10 more horizontal photos featured here, and a like number of vertical images in my Editor Afield article in this issue. Each year it seems I am able to get progressively better photographs, and that’s the way it should be – steady improvement with greater satisfaction at personal and professional levels. I sincerely hope you enjoy these photographs and hope you have even more joy picking out your best photos of fall, summer, spring, and winter that you have taken during 2024, and I share the very best wishes for you and your bird photography efforts during the New Year, 2025 – Good Luck!
A colorful female Wilson’s Phalarope is always photo worthy, but this beauty was swimming in a watery artscape created by light movement on the water surface with a mixed reflection of blue sky and clouds overhead. A puff of wind blew the sandpiper’s tertiary feathers up from behind, and it holds a drop of water in its slightly open bill. Phalaropes are perhaps the best known species in which the females is more colorful than the males, likely because the males incubate the eggs rather than the female (600mm zoom lens, f-8 aperture, 1/2500 shutter speed, 800 ISO).
Article and Photographs by Paul Konrad
Share your bird photos and birding experiences at editorstbw2@gmail.com
The 7-foot wingspans of this trio of endangered Whooping Cranes are on full display as they veer slightly to absorb the full effect of the sunlight that even lights up their eyes and red facial skin as well as their plumage. These 3 Whoopers were flying on the far side of a flock of 8 that flew low directly toward me after leaving the field where they were feeding, enroute to a shallow wetland adjacent to the Missouri River. Building from loose flock of 14, an impressive peak number of 38 Whooping Cranes was assembled this day during a migration stopover that produced an exceptional birding experience! (600mm zoom, f-10 aperture, 1/2500 shutter speed, 800 ISO.)
Almost too close, this large adult female Ferruginous Hawk surprised me, even though it was positioned in full sight. As I approached from the front, its white face and underside blended with the snow surrounding it, and my attention was directed to my right. Any other raptor would have taken flight at my abrupt close approach, but this beautiful Ferrug held her ground as I hit the brakes on the very rural road, shut off the ignition, and quickly focused on the big hawk with the bright early afternoon sky adding a sweet shade of blue to the scene. For me, the story behind the photo turns a simple portrait into an exciting save (600mm zoom lens, f-8 aperture, 1/4000 shutter speed, 800 ISO).
Just days out of the egg, a tiny Gadwall duckling was 1 of 8 that were already feeding quite independently in close proximity to my mobile blind (my car) parked on the edge of a favorite shallow marsh. With such a young brood of ducklings, it’s especially rare for the adult female to permit such freedom of movement, but she was alert while unwavering. The dabbling feeding motion of the downy duckling was transferred to the beautifully colored water, which adds a little action this photograph (600mm zoom lens, f-10 aperture, 1/1600 shutter speed, 400 ISO).
With the female and another drake positioned before it, the innate motions of a displaying Canvasback drake show the extreme positions of the drake’s head-throw and call display, performed in a very quick and fluid motion. The aperture and shutter speed settings for this image should preferably be more like f-8 with a resulting 1/2000 shutter speed, but even with the 1/500 shutter speed the photos turned out sharp with good colors indicative of this large duck (600mm zoom lens, f-13 aperture, 1/500 shutter speed, 800 ISO).
One of the shorebirds that eluded me for some time on a Florida beach, a Wilson’s Plover suddenly appeared before me, approached me, then made a dash to move beyond me. I imagined what was on the plover’s mind and was prepared for its sprinting action, which is stopped in the image via a super-fast 1/3200 second shutter speed (600mm zoom lens, f-10 aperture, 1/3200 shutter speed, 400 ISO).
On an especially windy morning, the surf was up on a local lake, but didn’t seem to concern this Horned Grebe that was in full display, including extending its neck higher than I’ve ever witnessed before. Action photography is hard to beat, but it takes some anticipation and quick reflexes. Note how the morning sunlight brightens the colorful waterbird’s plumage in display mode (600mm zoom lens, f-10 aperture, 1/640 shutter speed, 800 ISO).
You could suggest a number of human traits to describe this White Pelican, but to me it suggested a fitting “aloha” image at the end of this year’s Bird Photography features. This is a look at a pelican that we rarely witness, and as always during wildlife photography, we need to be prepared and react in a split second when an unusual or memorable action takes place. The super-fast 1/4000 shutter speed stopped the action at the peak of the wide gape that happened without a sound, although it probably should have been accompanied by a roar – ha. Good Luck photographing birds throughout the year ahead! (600mm zoom lens, f-9 aperture, 1/4000 shutter speed, 800 ISO.)
