Hunters at Bear River MBR have made ducks jumpy as hell so yesterday I decided to try to take advantage of the situation.
Duck takeoffs are fun and rewarding to capture but hard to photograph well. For most of the year, if you can get one in your viewfinder, you don’t know if or when it’ll take off so it’s a waiting game that the photographer usually loses. Either they don’t take off at all, or they take off before you’re in position and ready, or they wait so long to take off the photographer loses the edge – the intense concentration required to capture them at blastoff. When it happens it just happens too fast.
But yesterday, thanks to the hunters, I noticed a predictable pattern. They were so jumpy they were consistently taking off within a second or so, before or after, my pickup rolled very slowly to a complete stop. So I started getting them in my viewfinder even before I was completely stopped and they typically took off right about then.
And my strategy actually worked, quite a few times in fact. This is one of them.
1/5000, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
These two female mallards were so jumpy they took off while my pickup was still barely inching forward. This is the first shot I got – I didn’t even get any photos of them on the water. I like the photo because of the explosive takeoff of both birds, because both birds are sharp and because of their dramatically different takeoff styles – the hen on the left is taking off straight up while her companion is taking off forward at about a 45° angle.
I was pretty close, so I was lucky to keep both of them in the frame. If I had more room above and to the right I’d crop the shot differently, but I don’t.
Less than ideal composition or not, the photo still makes me smile. To me, the hen on the left looks like she’s about to hit her head on the top of the frame.
Ron
Wow! The rocket and the airplane. Definitely wonder about the two takeoff choices and if it was only the location of the duck on the right that influenced the one on the left. I feel for these ladies and hope that they manage to make it through the season.
I don’t know if I’ve ever asked before, but is hunting open just for sport or to cull numbers because of overpopulation and for resource management (like deer and rabbit seasons in some places)?
“The rocket and the airplane.”
Love that, Marty. Wish I’d thought of it for my title.
Duck hunting is open just for “sport” as far as I know.
Well, I hope the hunters and their families at least actually eat what they kill.
Marty, many of them do but some don’t.
What bothers me as much as anything is all the wounded ducks I see out in the marshes during hunting season. And who knows how many are killed but never found, even by hunters with dogs. And most don’t have dogs with them.
I am not at all surprised they are jumpy. Well done on taking such excellent advantage.
Thanks, EC. They sure have good reason to be.
Great shots. Reminds me of a photo and discussion I read years ago in “Prairie Wings”, the wonderful annotated photo and sketch book of the 1940’s where I learned that mallards will use their webbed feet to push down on the water to get that initial vertical lift.
Thanks, Kent.. Yes, they get a lot of acceleration that way.
That is a really neat photo. Love what the explosion does to the water with those big webbed feet pushing off. Like the whole photo with the reeds or frags in the background etc. I think on FP we have discussed in the past photographers reluctance to take Mallard photos, but by not doing so you are often missing some outstanding opportunities like this one.
Thanks very much, Everett. To be honest, I didn’t even realize that they were Mallards before I took the shot – didn’t have time. If they’d have been males I would have noticed, but they weren’t. At the time, all I knew was that they were ducks and I wanted takeoff shots.
Very nice Ron. Another fine example of how your photographs capture a moment that happens so fast that the human eye cannot take in all the wonderful detail. Getting these two takeoff styles in one frame is very informative.
That one going vertical looks so surreal.
Don’t know how they do it. I am amazed at how fast land based birds take to the air. These birds have to break free of the water while doing it, and they are so darn fast! A blink of the eye.
Michael, you obviously realize what an accomplishment it is for birds to take off so fast and at such steep angles. And Mallards are large, heavy ducks, which makes it even more impressive. Their webbed feet, pushing up and forward in the water during takeoff, are a big help, but still – it’s an impressive accomplishment.
WOW! Amazing shot, Ron! 🙂 The hen on the left looks like she REALLY got startled like me flushing a pheasant I’m close to….. 😉
Thanks, Judy. I wondered if the hen on the left took off at such a steep angle to avoid a possible collision with the other duck.
Awesome shot, thanks for sharing!
Charlotte Norton
Thanks, Charlotte.