River Otters

I've been otherwise occupied so I haven't visited the refuge much this Summer. However, I did go last week on a brutally hot, humid morning with the usual Summer bugs harassing me as I walked. There wasn't much to shoot, so I came away mostly empty. But I did have only my second otter sighting there. A pair of them were darting into the road and back into the brush repeatedly. One appeared to be an adult, the other a juvenile. Finally they came out long enough for me to get some shots of this playful pair before they ran to the shore and dove in.

River Otters

Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge with New Camera

The weather has lined up to mostly prevent me from going to the refuge to shoot. Cold doesn't bother me; rain and gray clouds to. It seems every weekend this year has been wet and gloomy.

I have good camera gear, but one annoyance persisted: the buffer capacity on my camera is too small. Too many times I've had a bird approaching, where I take a few shots to at least get something, and then the shot keeps getting better, and better, and as I'm firing away, the buffer fills up and my shot rate drops from several frames per second to only about one or two while the camera writes images to the card. I miss the best part of the sequence because the buffer is full. Then I find myself trying to budget my shots to keep capacity available, but maybe the bird turns and I could have gotten more shots while I was deliberately holding off. The same thing happens when I photograph my son's rowing races. I have to budget shots while they approach with their backs to me, then I want to fire away for the side shots with their bodies and faces in profile when they pull close, and I want to keep firing as they pull away, with their faces in view. But again, the buffer fills and I miss shots as they leave.

OK, enough whining. I bought a new camera body and I've been waiting for a chance to shoot. I got there at dawn just as the gate opened and before the sun rose.

But now the roads are closed at the refuge because of eagle nesting. OK, nothing new there, but to make matters worse, bad weather washed debris up on shore and washed the road out, leaving my favorite part along the shore unpassable and marked off limits. I can't even approach the eagle nest by the water.

So half of the roads are unavailable. But, it wasn't a total loss.

There's a spot on Easy Road where there is swamp on either side. I noticed ripples in the water, and stopped to see what caused them. It was a river otter. I've visited that refuge dozens of times over many years and never seen one before. Sadly, in the gloom, obscured by bushes, and only feet away, it was too close to photograph. I got a pretty good look at it as it was on land, but then it saw me and jumped into the water and swam away.

I saw several eagles and ospreys, though nothing worth photographing. I did come away with some shots of deer and a white-throated sparrow.

White-Throated Sparrow

White-Tailed Deer

White-Tailed Deer

I still have some work to do to get used to the new camera. It's way better than my old one but requires way better technique to get sharp photos.