Wild Delaware

Strong northeast winds this morning forced many of the usual salt marsh characters, like this great blue heron, to seek protected shelter.

Photography is all about capturing the light and the moment. If you are shooting wildlife, there are many days when you can find one element and not the other. And there are days when everything comes together. Like today when the light and moment came together in the minutes just before sunrise. I was in the right spot to see silhouetted flocks of snow geese passing in front of high clouds ablaze with the warm colors of an early November morning. Flock after flock passed in front of the clouds whose color and shape changed by the second as the sun inched toward breaking the horizon. It was a good morning, I thought, until my friend and fellow photographer Tony Pratt said, “Look at the fox!” There, directly behind me, was a red fox wading across the shallows of Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Instantly the morning became a great day. I swung my camera around and was able to capture another nice moment - and a totally different situation - shooting in the opposite direction. It helps to have a great “wingman” watching out for other opportunities. Later this morning, I found an American bittern intent on fishing the shallows. Not a bad day!