Wandering the shores of Bald Eagle Lake, it’s not difficult to spot a wood duck or two. But Andy Townshend says that trying to capture this bird on film gets a little tricky. “You kind of have to sneak up on them,” he explains. That extra layer of difficulty and sneakiness is what makes his photo, Wood Duck, so special.
The photograph garnered first place in the Wildlife and Nature category of our contest and was taken on a May morning as Townshend watched the male wood duck wait for the female, which was still in his neighbor’s wood duck house. Knowing this was a rare opportunity, he grabbed his Canon SX50 and captured the perfect shot of this beautiful bird.
Since then, Townshend has seen 10 or 12 baby wood ducks emerge from the wood duck house “like little paratroopers,” he says. “It was a rare treat.”
