{"id":118491,"date":"2023-11-23T04:00:29","date_gmt":"2023-11-23T11:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=118491"},"modified":"2023-11-23T04:00:29","modified_gmt":"2023-11-23T11:00:29","slug":"fall-redhead-drake-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/11\/23\/fall-redhead-drake-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall Redhead Drake Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a cold morning two days ago, I had two Redhead drakes in my viewfinder at my local pond. the light was lovely and so were the ducks.<\/p>\n

\"FallFall Redhead drakes swimming together \u2013 Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f8, 1\/1000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

At first, I focused on getting photos of the male ducks together as they slowly swam around the pond in their breeding plumage. The autumn-hued reflections in this frame caught my eye.<\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo Redhead drakes in fall \u2013 Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f8, 1\/1000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

And in this frame, the drakes stood out well from the darker area of the water. I enjoyed the reflections of these ducks on the water as much as I enjoyed the ducks themselves.<\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Redhead and autumn reflections \u2013 Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f10, 1\/1000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When the drakes split up for a bit, I was able to focus on taking images of them one at a time for a few minutes.<\/p>\n

Homes and trees near the pond can make for some interesting and lovely reflections on the water. The reflections on the water appealed to me in this photo.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Redhead drake swimming in a pond \u2013 Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f10, 1\/6400, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

And in this frame of one of the drakes did too. The blue sky overhead reflected on the low bow wave in front of the duck and behind him too.<\/p>\n

\"RedheadRedhead drake duo on an urban pond \u2013 Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f10, 1\/500, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When a fisherman walked close to where I stood with a noisy cart, the ducks moved away. I focused on taking more photos of the two of them together again.<\/p>\n

\"RedheadRedhead drakes bill to bill \u2013 Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f10, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Both ducks began diving underwater in search of food. In this photo, one emerged with food while the other surfaced with an empty bill. I liked how it looked like their bills were crossed in this photo.<\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Redhead with a bill full of food \u2013 Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f10, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I burst into laughter while capturing this image\u2014how could I not? The drake’s bill was packed with so much aquatic vegetation that about a dozen comedic captions ran through my mind.<\/p>\n

\"RedheadRedhead drake after taking a drink of water \u2013 Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f10, 1\/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

It looked liked the drake was talking and saying something out loud in this frame with his bill open. He had just finished a drink of water.<\/p>\n

It does not take much to amuse me.<\/p>\n

\"RedheadRedhead drake food fight \u2013 Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f10, 1\/500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

These last two photos of the Redhead<\/span><\/a> drakes are part of a series I took showing the drake on the right snatching food from the drake on the left.<\/p>\n

\"RedheadRedhead drakes fighting over food \u2013 Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f10, 1\/500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The tug-of-war food fight between the two drakes once again made me laugh out loud. I am not aware of having seen this behavior in this species of duck before, so I was delighted to have captured it in my photos.<\/p>\n

Speaking of food, I don’t anticipate many tug-of-war food fights happening at tables across the country today. Instead, I hope everyone relishes the bounty on their tables and the company seated with them.<\/p>\n

Today, I’ll miss hearing my mom’s voice. We usually spoke on the phone first thing to discuss our holiday plans. It’s my first Thanksgiving without her.<\/p>\n

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

On a cold morning two days ago, I had two Redhead drakes in my viewfinder at my local pond. the light was lovely and so were the ducks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,2460,709,26],"tags":[4004,970,2461,5552,4053,4753,4483,6320,1129,126,13697,4620,4743,4337,1130,10157,4062,10698,1984,4560,14574,958,1283,8018,3996],"class_list":["post-118491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-redheads","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-aythya-americana","tag-bill","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-diving-ducks","tag-drake","tag-drink","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-duo","tag-fall","tag-fight","tag-fighting","tag-food","tag-full","tag-male","tag-park","tag-pond","tag-redhead","tag-redhead-duck","tag-reflections","tag-swimming","tag-urban","tag-water"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/redhead-drakes-autumn-pond-mia-mcpherson-8373.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-uP9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49425,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/11\/14\/winter-redhead-drakes-in-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":118491,"position":0},"title":"Winter Redhead Drakes in Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Redhead drakes are more colorful than the hens and I always enjoy having them in my viewfinder because of their cinnamon colored heads, their bright orange eyes and their tri-colored bills.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Close up of a drake Redhead, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-drake-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8960.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-drake-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8960.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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stretching","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/redhead-drake-adult-stretching-mia-mcpherson-4310.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/redhead-drake-adult-stretching-mia-mcpherson-4310.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/redhead-drake-adult-stretching-mia-mcpherson-4310.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/redhead-drake-adult-stretching-mia-mcpherson-4310.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43871,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/12\/12\/redhead-drakes\/","url_meta":{"origin":118491,"position":2},"title":"Redhead Drakes","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This Redhead drake photographed at the refuge in his breeding plumage sure stood out well from the water that was reflecting the spring growth of rushes and phragmites.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Drake Redhead at Bear River MBR in spring, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-drake-green-water-mia-mcpherson-7327.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-drake-green-water-mia-mcpherson-7327.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-drake-green-water-mia-mcpherson-7327.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-drake-green-water-mia-mcpherson-7327.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":62769,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/16\/photographing-winter-redheads-in-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":118491,"position":3},"title":"Photographing Winter Redheads in Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I watched and photographed the Redhead drakes exhibiting Kinked-neck and Head-throw displays but once again they were too far away to get the high quality images I am seeking.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Redhead drakes and hens gathering on a pond, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-hens-and-drakes-winter-pond-mia-mcpherson-3473.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-hens-and-drakes-winter-pond-mia-mcpherson-3473.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-hens-and-drakes-winter-pond-mia-mcpherson-3473.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-hens-and-drakes-winter-pond-mia-mcpherson-3473.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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The red-headed duck appeared to be keeping an eye on me.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Resting Redhead drake, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-drake-resting-mia-mcpherson-9728.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-drake-resting-mia-mcpherson-9728.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-drake-resting-mia-mcpherson-9728.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-drake-resting-mia-mcpherson-9728.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14314,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/02\/11\/redhead-drake-portrait\/","url_meta":{"origin":118491,"position":5},"title":"Redhead drake portrait","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The sun came out for a few hours yesterday afternoon so I went to a pond near where I live and photographed some of the ducks including this very confiding Redhead drake.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Redhead drake portrait, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-duck-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9081.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-duck-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9081.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-duck-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9081.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-duck-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9081.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}