Living Wild Photography & Artwork

Wintering Wood Ducks

Until recent years, Utah’s wood duck population was once thought to be less than three thousand birds.  Wood ducks by nature are extremely reclusive, making there population difficult to study and monitor.  Wood ducks habituate in areas providing flooded woodlands with streams and rivers near by.  These riparian areas offer sufficient cover as well as the nutrients needed for  their survival.  During the late winter months, many of these areas are frozen over, allowing one to capture a picturesque photograph of these majestic birds loafing on the ice as they endure a cold winters day.

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The Call Out Series

Some of the  coolest times i have spent in the blind is while waiting for a hen wood duck to call her brood from the box.  Given that the wow program has over 500 boxes deployed, one might think this opportunity would be much more prevalent.  Most hens will cal their brrods out during the early AM hours, often times before sunrise.  This makes the lighting a nightmare to deal with as the subject is constantly a moving shot.  This intire process from start to finish will last less than several minutes.  But, as I have always said, some days are diamonds…

Natures Little Wonders

To witness these little guys respond to the call of the mother wood duck is truly awe inspiring.  On this particular day, the hen called out 17 of these little guys, giving a 100 percent success to hatch and nest departure.  The hen seemed to have taken extra time in her efforts.  She had spent nearly two hours in preparing her little ones that were just 48 hours old.  She would stand in the doorway, blocking their exit and call to them nervously.  During this process you could see the box laterally begin to move on the pole from all the excitement inside.  She would fly down to the water for a brief time and the box would go still.  Over a series of repeating this process they began to appear in the doorway and out they came like popcorn out of a popcorn popper.  This process of the actual call-out took 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Over 100 frames taken and near an hour of video footage, it was the coolest morning ever….

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The Pine Bull

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Masters Of The Marsh Series

The Masters of the Marsh series are decoys that I spent 6 years hunting & guiding over at the Bear River Club and were then retired.  These decoys have been stripped down and refurbished one last time, then repainted to the high quality gunning decoys they once where and then retired with a letter of authenticity.  These decoys have brought $500 at the appropriate benefit auctions.

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The Wondrous Wood Duck