First winter drake Common Goldeneye coming in for a landing – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1000, ISO 500, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
I find ducks to be extremely challenging to photograph in flight because they zoom past so quickly and their flight can be very erratic but I continually push myself to photograph them to sharpen my skills and fine tune my techniques. Luckily for me during this time of the year I can practice on ducks in flight close to home and I had a few such opportunities yesterday evening when I allowed myself to take a break from a project with a January 3rd deadline that has been eating up all of my time.
I usually hear Common Goldeneyes in flight not because of calls but because of the whistling sound their wings make in flight, some people even call this species “Whistlers” because of the sound of their wings. Bird Note has some great audio of that sound here. Yesterday I had some of these “Whistlers” fly into my local pond which allowed me to test my skills and few times that whistling sound made me aware that they were coming in well before I could see them.
I got lucky when a first winter drake Common Goldeneye flew towards me while coming in for a landing on the pond in sweet late afternoon light. I love how he appeared to be looking at me, how his tail is fanned out, that his webbed feet look spread and how this image shows him using his wings to slow himself down before landing on the cold, shimmering water.
The Common Goldeneyes will only be around the pond for a few more weeks before they will head to their breeding grounds. I saw several drakes displaying yesterday plus a few hens displaying back to them even though it is too early for them to be breeding they may already be pair bonding. I’m hoping to take advantage of their presence for the next few weeks to test my skills with ducks in flight often.
Life is just ducky sometimes.
Mia
Click here to see more of my Common Goldeneye photos plus facts and information about this species.
For some reason, I’m getting a big chuckle out of his position as he’s coming in. 😀
He has a look of “oh sh…. oh sh… ” as he is landing.
What a beauty. Thank you.
Cool shot Mia. Merry Christmas
Look at those feet!
Oh yeah….Nice image..
OMGosh…..I never realized it was the sound of their wings. I thought they were calling as they were flying. You are such a source of information! Thank you.