{"id":109434,"date":"2023-01-08T04:21:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-08T11:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=109434"},"modified":"2023-01-08T04:21:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T11:21:00","slug":"first-winter-hooded-merganser-at-an-urban-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/01\/08\/first-winter-hooded-merganser-at-an-urban-pond\/","title":{"rendered":"First Winter Hooded Merganser At An Urban Pond"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days ago I had the opportunity to photograph this first winter Hooded Merganser<\/span><\/a> at an urban pond that isn’t far from where I live after a heavy snow. I’ve been seeing this particular merganser since the middle of December.<\/p>\n

\"FirstFirst winter Hooded Merganser after a dive \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I can see more dark feathers on the forehead of this Hooded Merganser than I had previously but other than that it appears much the same as it did when I first saw it<\/span><\/a>. It is as if its molt has stalled.<\/p>\n

This Hooded Merganser is skittish and stays fairly far away from me whenever I see it even though this pond is fairly small. When I saw it is a few days ago the merganser was busy foraging for food. In this image it had just resurfaced from a dive.<\/p>\n

I am hoping that the merganser sticks around for a while longer and that I will have an opportunity to photograph it from a closer perspective.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Hooded Merganser photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago I had the opportunity to photograph this first winter Hooded Merganser at an urban pond that isn’t far from where I live after a heavy snow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,6932,709,26],"tags":[4478,4753,1129,126,2450,6934,6933,4705,4704,1984,8018,3996,2063,373],"class_list":["post-109434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-hooded-mergansers","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-dive","tag-diving-ducks","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-first-winter","tag-hooded-merganser","tag-lophodytes-cucullatus","tag-merganser","tag-mergansers","tag-pond","tag-urban","tag-water","tag-waterfowl","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t