One of my favorite local spots is a small duck pond in Glen Rock, New Jersey that is part of the Saddle River County Park system.  Usually the pond is full of Mallards and Canada Geese, with occassional Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Black-crowned Night Herons, Ring-billed Gulls, and Double-crested Cormorants.  If you visit regularly enough though, every once in a while an unusual bird or two can be found, as long as you are looking.

The pond is close to home, so I often run or bike there, or visit with my mom to go on walks.  Yesterday, I joined my mom for a walk on her lunch break and noticed an uncommon visitor, an American Wigeon!  After my mom returned to work, I grabbed my camera out of the car (I had packed it just in case), and set out to photograph the female duck.

Wigeons don’t tend to be very tame, and this bird wasn’t exactly an exception, but I did get closer to her than any other wigeon I have seen.  Fortunately, birds at local parks tend to get rather used to humans, so I was able to sit out in the open, where the other ducks and geese mulled around me and probably made me seem less threatening.

Unfortunately, because of the many birds and poor circulation of the water in the pond, the water’s surface is often not very clean, as was the case yesterday.  I had to do some extensive cloning to the water to remove feathers and other distracting debris from the surface of the water.  As a result, the shot isn’t stellar, but it’s my first of the species and more than suitable for my stock gallery.  I returned to the pond today, both this morning and afternoon, in hopes of getting some different photographs of the wigeon, possibly in better conditions, but she was no where to be found.  I guess she moved on.

I returned to the pond today, both in the morning and afternoon, and did not find the wigeon.

Techs: Canon 1D Mark II N with 300mm f/2.8L IS + 2x Extender.  To order this print, purchase stock rights, or view other photos I have for sale, please visit my website at www.karipost.com.