Photographing the Elusive Wood Ducks!

The Opportunity

I have been searching for elusive wood ducks for several weeks. It seems they always see me before I see them and they take flight. This past weekend, a friend invited me to shoot at his pond. He has seen the wood ducks for the past few days. I met with another photographer and we arrived about 30 minutes before sunrise. Tyson walked us to the pond and noted a few areas. We donned our camouflage gear and sat quietly on our five gallon buckets to wait. The wait slowly turned to about two hours for the wood ducks to arrive. My bucket seat is padded but after about 30 minutes, it did not seem padded.

The Wait the Wood Ducks

We were about 50 feet apart and could see each other’s blind, but not the individual. After about 2 hours we both started to grow restless and cramped, but did not want to say anything for fear of chasing away any wood duck that might be near. Finally, a lone female landed in the pond and started calling her mate. A minute or two later, her partner arrived and we began to shoot. We shot for about an hour or little longer having long forgotten how our cramped bodies ached! When we were about to run out of memory cards, we started talking about leaving. After devising a strategy and setting our cameras, we planned to exit our blinds. The wood ducks must have heard us because they took off before I had my camera fully off the tripod and the shutter speed set for flight.