Bufflehead Photos

Photography by Terry Sohl

My Favorite: Waterfowl in general are extremely difficult to get close to in South Dakota. They're extremely wary, and typically flush long before you get within photo range. The vast majority of the waterfowl photos out on my website were taken from some kind of blind, be it my chair blind that I sometimes plop down on a shoreline and wait for birds to come by, or very often, just using my car as a blind.  However, at Dewey Gevik Nature Area, there's a wonderful permanent blind that sticks out into a large wetland complex, complete with slots with windows that flip up so you can see out and take photos. In the spring, it's an absolutely fantastic place to get close photos of waterfowl.  Bufflehead are perhaps one of the less shy waterfowl in the state (although it's all relative), but still...there's little chance I could have gotten a photo like this without the use of some kind of blind. This was on a wonderful, calm, sunny morning at Dewey Gevik just after dawn. It's not only one of my favorite Bufflehead photos, it's one of my favorite photos of all time, with the warm morning light keeping contrast down enough that I could maintain some detail in both the blacks and whites, and get some of that gorgeous iridescence to show up. Taken on April 4th, 2015.

Bufflehead 1 April 11th, 2010 Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Bufflehead 2 April 11th, 2010 Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Bufflehead 3 December 18th, 2008 Sutro Baths, San Francisco, California	Bufflehead 4 December 18th, 2008 Sutro Baths, San Francisco, California
Bufflehead 5 April 11th, 2010 Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Bufflehead 6 December 18th, 2008 Sutro Baths, San Francisco, California	Bufflehead 7 December 18th, 2008 Sutro Baths, San Francisco, California	Bufflehead 8 April 11th, 2010 Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota
Bufflehead 9 April 11th, 2010 Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Bufflehead 10 April 11th, 2010 Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Bufflehead 11 April 11th, 2010 Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Bufflehead 12 April 1st, 2012 Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota
Bufflehead 13 April 4th, 2015 Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Bufflehead 14 April 4th, 2015 Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Bufflehead 15 April 4th, 2015 Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Bufflehead 16 April 4th, 2015 Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota
Bufflehead 17 April 4th, 2015 Dewey Gevik Nature	Bufflehead 18 March 29th, 2020 Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Bufflehead 19 March 29th, 2020 Minnehaha County, South Dakota

Click here for the species description page for the Bufflehead.

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