Four Days in Januaryat Yates Mill Pond Park

Day 3

Jan. 11, 2026

On Jan. 11, I returned to Yates Mill Pond Park, but this time to photograph with a piece of gear I hadn’t used in a long time.

My Canon 7D has been sitting in an old camera bag in my office ever since moving to North Carolina, and I might have to go back to March 2015 in Indianapolis, when I shot photos for First Folio Productions’ rendition of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, that I last used the 7D.

So why now? It occurred to me on the drive home from the park visit on Jan. 9 that I might have better effective focal range trying to reach those hard to get waterfowl using the 7D crop-sensor camera along with my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens and Canon 1.4 extender. So I resolved to return and try that gear when weather allowed, and that happened to be on the 11th.

It was on the chilly side Sunday morning, and sadly, the gaggle of geese that I’d seen on the pond at the same time on two previous visits, was not there. But I was gifted by the presence of what appears to be a great blue heron, which had not been on the pond on the previous visits. 

As the lead-off photo shows, the heron was along the shore, no doubt foraging for a meal, and I spotted it in the general vicinity of where I’d seen the geese on the previous visits, which was on the short side of the pond, the side north of the pedestrian bridge. 

I also saw some ducks, a pair on the same side of the pond, and five smaller ones on the big side. Also on the big side, camped out as usual on some driftwood in the water in the big side of the pond, were some other waterfowl whose species I wasn’t sure of. 

The 7D had a battery grip (which held two batteries) still attached, and I decided not to mess with. But combined with the heavy L lens and the extender, it reminded me why I haven’t used my two L lenses more often in recent years on long, multi-hour, walk-around shoots. It was heavy!

To view a full gallery of images from this shoot, follow the link in this sentence.

A mallard alone (above) and with his mate (below), where I saw them on the short side of the pond. It’s possible they are the parents of the smaller ducks pictured further down. The smaller ducks were on the opposite side of the pedestrian bridge in the big side of the pond. 

Above and below: A couple photos of the waterfowl crew hanging out on the driftwood in the big side of the pond. This crew has been there at the same time every day I’ve been in the park this month. 

Above and below: A couple more frames of the blue heron.