Wildlife in Jefferson National Forest

Nov. 4, 2005, Goose swimming in pond
I don't usually do much photography of birds, partly because my longest good lens is 200 mm. Guess which lens I used! That's right, the 200 mm. I was here at the edge of the pond for the purpose of shooting fall color. But geese have learned that people often offer food, so they typically swim over toward people whenever someone new shows up--so I turned my camera's attention to them (and a few ducks).
Most of my photos were blurred (I used manual focus and was too slow) or streaked (the geese moved through the frame during exposure). But this one came out alright. I had wanted to catch a few geese together in an interesting arrangement, but none of those came out crisp. I also wanted to catch a duck or two (mallards), because I have always loved ducks--almost like part of the family. (When growing up in the Pine Barrens, a small flock of ducks regularly visited me in my back yard beside a small lake. Several were wild-colored mallards, and one was a big white duck that I named Seymore. Seymore was my buddy!)
One of my favorite "pond" sounds is the sound of mallard ducks quacking. I ought to find a tape recording of that gentle sound for inspiration while I sit here working on my website!