An Evening Stream Sitting

Lately my wildlife photography has had to take a backseat to other obligations and family medical issues.  Thankfully the medical issues appear to be behind us and this evening I found time to spend a few hours outdoors.  Looking for a change of pace I headed for a local creek in hopes of finding wildlife in the open along the watercourse.

Although the evening was very hot and humid, once set up I didn't have long to wait.  A squirrel on the north bank crossed over the creek using the only overhanging tree in sight and was soon followed by a redtailed hawk.  The squirrel successfully eluded the hawk as I could hear the squirrel barking a few minutes after the hawk dissapeared from view.  Half an hour later a single wood duck hen flew by followed by a mature bald eagle about fifteen minutes later, both flying at less than tree top height and with no chance for a photograph.

As a thundershower approached my luck changed when a nice whitetail buck stepped into the stream.  Light was failing fast and even with an ISO 500 I the shutterspeed was only 1/40th; not enough to completely freeze the movment and not enough time to change.

In a moment the buck had crossed the water dissapearing into the heavy undergrowth along the stream.  The encounter was shortlived but long enough to capture a couple of images.  I hope to meet this fellow later when his antlers have finished growing.