{"id":118869,"date":"2023-12-10T04:22:37","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T11:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=118869"},"modified":"2023-12-10T04:22:49","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T11:22:49","slug":"drake-common-goldeneye-landing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/12\/10\/drake-common-goldeneye-landing\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake Common Goldeneye Landing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, I am sharing a simple photo of a drake Common Goldeneye coming in to land on my local pond early in the morning. I took this image a few days ago.<\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Common Goldeneye slide landing \u2013 Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 1000, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I have seen this drake on most of my last visits to the pond, with the exception of yesterday morning. The dashing diving duck may have been hidden from my view by vegetation, though. I’ll look for him again when I walk around the entire pond. I didn’t do that yesterday because I had groceries in my Jeep, and because the temperature was a mere 21\u00b0F.<\/p>\n

Prior to taking this image, I spotted the Common Goldeneye<\/span><\/a> drake in a area where I thought I could use the vegetation at the edge of my pond to hide my presence.<\/p>\n

I walked back to my Jeep, pulled out my tripod, attached my camera to it, and then walked closer to the duck.<\/p>\n

There was a gap in the pondside vegetation, and I could see that the goldeneye spotted me. I quickly set up, turned my camera on, and this photo was the fifth frame that I took after the duck made a short flight barely above the pond.<\/p>\n

This is not a perfect photo. I could wish that the bill of the drake goldeneye was visible; I am not going to do that though. I like this image just the way it is, and that is why I decided to share it this morning.<\/p>\n

When I look at this photo, it makes me smile, and that is enough for me to share it here with you.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Today, I am sharing a simple photo of a drake Common Goldeneye coming in to land on my local pond early in the morning. I took this image a few days ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118865,"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":[27,962,709,26],"tags":[4004,970,4238,4520,4753,4483,1129,126,4620,6348,5586,4123,4062,10698,1984,14598,5493,8018,3996],"class_list":["post-118869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-common-goldeneyes","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-bucephala-clangula","tag-common-goldeneye","tag-diving-ducks","tag-drake","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-fall","tag-goldeneye","tag-goldeneyes","tag-landing","tag-male","tag-park","tag-pond","tag-slide","tag-sliding","tag-urban","tag-water"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/common-goldenye-drake-slide-landing-mia-mcpherson-8823.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-uVf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":75597,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/11\/29\/landing-drake-common-goldeneye\/","url_meta":{"origin":118869,"position":0},"title":"Landing Drake Common Goldeneye","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm anxious to start photographing the ducks I see close to home during the winter here in the Salt Lake Valley and from what I understand a few Common Goldeneyes have shown up.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Landing adult drake Common Goldeneye, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/common-goldeneye-drake-landing-mia-mcpherson-5921.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/common-goldeneye-drake-landing-mia-mcpherson-5921.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/common-goldeneye-drake-landing-mia-mcpherson-5921.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/common-goldeneye-drake-landing-mia-mcpherson-5921.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55391,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/12\/23\/first-winter-drake-common-goldeneye-landing-on-a-pond\/","url_meta":{"origin":118869,"position":1},"title":"First Winter Drake Common Goldeneye Landing On A Pond","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"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.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"First winter drake Common Goldeneye coming in for a landing, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/common-goldeneye-first-winter-male-landing-mia-mcpherson-6270.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/common-goldeneye-first-winter-male-landing-mia-mcpherson-6270.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/common-goldeneye-first-winter-male-landing-mia-mcpherson-6270.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/common-goldeneye-first-winter-male-landing-mia-mcpherson-6270.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":118604,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/11\/28\/first-of-season-common-goldeneye\/","url_meta":{"origin":118869,"position":2},"title":"First Of Season Common Goldeneye","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 28, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Three days ago, I found my first-of-season Common Goldeneye drake at my local pond. I didn't have my camera with me, so I wasn't able to photograph him.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Drake Common Goldeneye settling down, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/common-goldeneye-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-7243.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/common-goldeneye-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-7243.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/common-goldeneye-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-7243.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/common-goldeneye-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-7243.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":109770,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/01\/22\/1st-winter-common-goldeneye-drake-with-a-crawdad\/","url_meta":{"origin":118869,"position":3},"title":"1st Winter Common Goldeneye Drake With A Crawdad","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Just a quick post this morning of a photo of a 1st winter Common Goldeneye drake with a crawdad in his bill at my neighborhood pond taken last year.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"1st winter Common Goldeneye drake with a crawdad, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/common-goldeneye-drake-first-winter-crawdad-mia-mcpherson-2757.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/common-goldeneye-drake-first-winter-crawdad-mia-mcpherson-2757.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/common-goldeneye-drake-first-winter-crawdad-mia-mcpherson-2757.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/common-goldeneye-drake-first-winter-crawdad-mia-mcpherson-2757.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55274,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/12\/12\/first-winter-common-goldeneye-drake-mid-dive-in-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":118869,"position":4},"title":"First Winter Common Goldeneye Drake Mid-dive In Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I like this image because I was able to capture the eye of this diving first winter drake Common Goldeneye just as it is about to go below the surface of the pond but I also like what is going on with the water in this frame too.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"First winter Common Goldeneye drake mid-dive, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-first-winter-male-mia-mcpherson-0493.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-first-winter-male-mia-mcpherson-0493.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-first-winter-male-mia-mcpherson-0493.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-first-winter-male-mia-mcpherson-0493.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":108781,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/12\/16\/immature-male-common-goldeneye-and-catfish\/","url_meta":{"origin":118869,"position":5},"title":"Immature Male Common Goldeneye And Catfish","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"On this day two years ago, I photographed this immature male Common Goldeneye with a catfish at the pond in my neighborhood. 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