Featured Photograph: July 8, 2024
The Eider Sanction …
Early one morning in June, on a grassy tussock overlooking a tapestry of tundra ponds and wetlands spanning hundreds of miles, I sat for a moment absolutely awestruck.
I’d traveled more than 700 miles from home in Anchorage to Alaska’s northernmost coast in search of eiders, large sea ducks that migrate ashore each June to breed, nest, and raise young before returning to the icy Arctic Ocean. I’d found them, too. In fact, I’d located and photographed representatives of all three regional species – king eiders, spectacled eiders, and Steller’s eiders – before 6 a.m.
The bird pictured here, a king eider drake, was No. 3 that morning on my most-wanted list. Festooned with scarlet bill topped by an electric-yellow knob over black-bordered white breast, head and neck, it was easily seen from several hundred yards away. A closer look revealed the drake, resting at the edge of a tennis court-sized pond, was accompanied by a more modestly colored brown hen.
I took my time stalking with 500mm lens and 1.4 extender into full-frame shooting range. Distant shotgun reports the evening before indicated local subsistence hunters were shooting eiders, too. I’d already encountered Steller’s eiders and spectacled eiders that morning (I’d rolled out of bed at 3 a.m.), and found the ducks wary of my approach.
Air temperatures were around 30 degrees, with winds gusting to 15 miles per hour. Still, the sun was up – and would not set for the next two and a half months – warming the tundra in rich, golden rays.
By the time I got into position, the eiders had seen me. They craned their necks and watched suspiciously as I pressed the shutter button. I spent perhaps 30 minutes photographing the birds before they suddenly began, for no apparent reason, to bob their heads. I knew they were preparing to take flight, so I was ready when the drake lifted off the water, providing me this colorful shot of a morning I’ll never forget.
This image was made with my Canon R5 at 700mm, f8,1/1250, ISO 400.
—km