Leighton Photography & Imaging

  • Home
  • Website
  • About
  • Portfolio
  • Contact
  • Newsletter
  • How to Download
  • Galleries
    • All Galleries
    • Search
    • Cart
    • Lightbox
    • Client Area
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
x

Search Results

Refine Search
Match all words
Match any word
Prints
Personal Use
Royalty-Free
Rights-Managed
(leave unchecked to
search all images)
28 images found
twitterlinkedinfacebook

Loading ()...

  • Mallard duck photographed in Tallahassee, Florida.
    Mallard Duck
  • Although this isn't widely known, the big, black & white "ugly" ducks seen in parks and cities around the United States, Canada, Europe and parts of Australia and New Zealand called Muscovy ducks are actually a native of the New World, despite their "Russian-sounding" name. They are found natively from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas south all the way to Uruguay and Northern Argentina. A very large duck, it was already domesticated in pre-Columbian times by the Aztecs before Europeans arrived in North America, who spread them around the world as a food source. This impressive drake (male duck) was found and photographed in its native range near some nesting trees in McAllen, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley.
    Muscovy Duck
  • A protective mother wood duck hen speeds across a duckweed-covered pond with her chicks hot on her tail by Soos Creek in Kent, Washington on a hot summer day.
    Wood Duck Hen with Ducklings
  • A male hooded merganser in a small pond in Medina, Washington.
    Hooded Merganser
  • A male hooded merganser shakes his feathers in a small pond in Medina, Washington.
    Hooded Merganser
  • A male hooded merganser shows off his head-crest in a small pond in Medina, Washington.
    Hooded Merganser
  • A male hooded merganser shakes his wings in a small pond in Medina, Washington.
    Hooded Merganser
  • An attractive female hooded merganser swims in one of the many ponds and pools of the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge between Olympia and Tacoma, Washington.
    Hooded Merganser
  • Black-bellied whistling duck is one of the coolest and most beautiful southern dabbling ducks that visit the southern United States, with their tricolor black, tan and brown plumage and bright orange bills and feet.  Widespread from the southern tips of Texas and Arizona to nearly all of Central and South America, their range is creeping northward and they have been seen more and more frequently in more southern states including Florida and the Caribbean. This pair was just two of hundreds found and photographed in a pond near Weslaco, Texas on a late winter morning.
    Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks (Dendr..lis)
  • Found all across nearly all of the Northern Hemisphere and Southeast Asia and common in many parts of Africa and India, the northern shoveler is a dabbling duck that has a large, spade-like bill that it uses to filter out tiny plants, seeds and invertebrates from the water. This beautiful drake (male duck) was found in a pond in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge near the Texas-Mexico border.
    Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata)
  • The black-bellied whistling duck is one of the coolest and most beautiful southern dabbling ducks that visit the southern United States, with their tricolor black, tan and brown plumage and bright orange bills and feet.  Widespread from the southern tips of Texas and Arizona to nearly all of Central and South America, their range is creeping northward and they have been seen more and more frequently in more southern states including Florida and the Caribbean. This raft of ducks was just part of a huge number of them found and photographed in a pond near Weslaco, Texas on a late winter morning.
    Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks (Dendr..lis)
  • A raft of surf scoters drifts by on Washington's Hood Canal on a brisk late afternoon. A type of large diving sea duck, the drakes (males) have beautifully bright orange and white bills with a black spot while typical in most ducks, the hens (females) have a rather drab coloration by comparison. Surf scoters can be found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans, where they typically breed in the tundra of Alaska and Northern Canada, and are very occasionally seen on the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes and even the British Isles.
    Surf Scoters
  • A raft of surf scoters drifts by on Washington's Hood Canal on a brisk late afternoon. A type of large diving sea duck, the drakes (males) have beautifully bright orange and white bills with a black spot while typical in most ducks, the hens (females) have a rather drab coloration by comparison. Surf scoters can be found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans, where they typically breed in the tundra of Alaska and Northern Canada, and are very occasionally seen on the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes and even the British Isles.
    Surf Scoters
  • Not too long ago I was traveling across Oregon Coast on a nature photography trip with an old friend and one of the places he wanted to check out was Thor's Well, located about midway down the state's incredible coastline at a place called Cape Perpetua. <br />
<br />
Formed out of natural volcanic rock (basalt), this wild geologic anomaly was probably formed by a cave beaten into the cliff that eventually collapsed forming this unusual seeming deep hole in the ground but is actually open underwater to the surf. This causes water to explode violently upward through the "well", followed by the foamy water to duck back down into the depths of the earth.<br />
<br />
It was utterly fascinating, even if I did get hit and completely soaked by one of the infamous rogue waves of the Pacific Ocean.
    Thor's Well
  • This very common aquatic plant is in the American Southeastern Atlantic and Gulf states with a range extrending from Mayland to Texas and including Oklahoma. Also known as the duck-potato for the tuber-like roots, it is an important food source for ducks and other waterfowl.
    Lanceleaf Arrowhead
  • The national butterfly of Finland, this tiny and fast-flying gossamer-wing butterfly is found across much of the world in the Northern Hemisphere. Like most blues, the underwings are spotted and splotched in specific patterns that are important for species identification, but the upper wings are often bright blue, hence their name. Unfortunately they seldom rest with their wings spread. This one was one of about a dozen found frantically skittering around a duck pond near Soos Creek in Kent, Washington State on a very hot summer day.
    Holly Blue Butterfly
  • Sol Duc Falls (pronounced “Soul Duck”) is one of many hundreds of waterfalls found in the Olympic Peninsula’s temperate rain forest in Washington State, and also one of the most beautiful. Somewhat isolated, and off the regular beaten path of most day-hikers (except for locals) and tourists this raging waterfall can be visited year round. The Sol Duc River gets its name from the Quileute (also spelled Quillayute) word roughly translated as “magic waters.”
    Sol Duc Falls
  • A close-up of a massive gaggle of Aleutian cackling geese in the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge between Tacoma & Olympia, Washington. Until 2004 the cackling goose was considered same species as the Canada goose, but is the size of a duck, has a very short bill, and has a much higher-pitched honk. The Aleutian cackling goose subspecies breeds in northern Alaska and Canada in the tundra near water, and travels south to California in winter. Making a comeback from near extinction, it has now been removed from the endangered species list.
    Aleutian Cackling Geese
  • A mallard drake (male) with paddles around in Soos Creek on a chilly Pacific Northwest winter day in Kent, Washington.
    Mallard Drake
  • A mallard hen swims in Soos Creek in Kent, Washington on a bright summer day.
    Mallard Hen
  • Also known as the grassy arrowhead, the grass-leaved arrowhead is a common native aquatic member of the water plantain family found all over eastern Canada and the United States, and across the southwestern states. It is found in marshes, swamps and along the sides of lakes and rivers with muddy soils, and can reach about 6 feet in height. This one was found growing in the Six Mile Cypress Sough in Fort Myers, Florida on a chilly fall evening.
    Grass-leaved Arrowhead (Sagittaria g..nea)
  • A busy  female mallard takes a break from showing her eight bundled ducklings how to find and eat peamouth minnow eggs from a shaded tiny creek in Bellevue, Washington on a warm spring afternoon.
    Mallard Family
  • A female hooded merganser swims apart from the group in a pond in Medina Washington.
    Female Hooded Merganser
  • An immature male northern shoveler spreads his wings on a small pond in Medina, WA on a chilly spring late afternoon. It's darkening head will soon be a brilliant metallic green, much like the common mallard, but its long bill will remain black.
    Northern Shoveler
  • An adult male anhinga in breeding plumage drying his wings in the Florida Everglades near Homestead. Because anhingas don't have the oil glands found in other aquatic birds like ducks, gulls, swans, etc, when they come out of the water, they will need to dry their wings in order to fly. The advantage of not having this seeming important oil so essential to buoyancy is that when underwater, the anhinga becomes an extremely fast and agile swimmer and a very efficient fish hunter. Throughout the Gulf Coast, this is a very typical sight: an anhinga perched above water,  wings spread drying in the wind and heat.
    Male Anhinga
  • Because anhingas don't have the oil glands found in other aquatic birds like ducks, gulls, swans, etc, when they come out of the water, they will need to dry their wings in order to fly. The advantage of not having this seemingly important oil so essential to buoyancy is that when underwater, the anhinga becomes an extremely fast and agile swimmer and a very efficient fish hunter. Throughout the Gulf Coast, this is a very typical sight: an anhinga perched above water,  wings spread drying in the wind and heat. This one was photographed in the middle of Fort Myers, Florida.
    Anhinga
  • Because anhingas don't have the oil glands found in other aquatic birds like ducks, gulls, swans, etc, when they come out of the water, they will need to dry their wings in order to fly. The advantage of not having this seeming important oil so essential to buoyancy is that when underwater, the anhinga becomes an extremely fast and agile swimmer and a very efficient fish hunter. Throughout the Gulf Coast, this is a very typical sight: an anhinga perched above water,  wings spread drying in the wind and heat. This one was photographed in the middle of Fort Myers, Florida.
    Anhinga
  • Because anhingas don't have the oil glands found in other aquatic birds like ducks, gulls, swans, etc, when they come out of the water, they will need to dry their wings in order to fly. The advantage of not having this seemingly important oil so essential to buoyancy is that when underwater, the anhinga becomes an extremely fast and agile swimmer and a very efficient fish hunter. Throughout the Gulf Coast, this is a very typical sight: an anhinga perched above water,  wings spread drying in the wind and heat. This adult male was photographed in the Six-mile Cypress Slough in Fort Myers, Florida.
    Male Anhinga