{"id":119471,"date":"2024-01-03T03:56:04","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T10:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=119471"},"modified":"2024-01-03T03:56:24","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T10:56:24","slug":"drake-northern-pintail-at-bear-river-mbr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/01\/03\/drake-northern-pintail-at-bear-river-mbr\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake Northern Pintail At Bear River MBR On New Year’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was thrilled to find and photograph a handsome drake Northern Pintail out on the auto tour loop of Bear River MBR<\/span><\/a> on New Year’s Day morning.<\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Northern Pintail standing on ice \u2013 Nikon D500, f8, 1\/2500, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

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Northern Pintails are year-round residents in my area of Utah; I just don’t have them in my viewfinder as often as I would like. Considering that several vehicles had passed by me that morning, I felt fortunate that this drake was still hanging around close to the road.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the people that passed me were moving way too fast to even see this duck in the marsh vegetation. Their loss was my golden opportunity with this pintail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"NorthernNorthern Pintail on New Year’s Day\u2013 Nikon D500, f8, 1\/2500, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

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The drake Northern Pintail didn’t seem distressed by my presence in my Jeep, which allowed me to take quite a few images of him in the canal next to the road.<\/p>\n

Pintails are striking, long-necked dabbling ducks. The pintail hens may not be as striking as the drakes, but they are gorgeous in their own right.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"DrakeDrake Northern Pintail shaking his feathers \u2013 Nikon D500, f8, 1\/2500, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The drake pintail even shook his feathers once, which allowed me to take this image through some phrags. The out-of-focus phragmites created a natural vignette in this frame. This was one of my favorite images from my trip around the auto tour loop on New Year’s Day.<\/p>\n

Even though my trip to the refuge was a bit scary due to the heavy fog on the interstate, I had a marvelous time with the birds I found. It was a great, peaceful, positive way to start the New Year.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

I was thrilled to find and photograph a handsome drake Northern Pintail out on the auto tour loop of Bear River MBR on New Year’s Day morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119464,"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":[124,27,1148,966,26],"tags":[4004,978,4717,4483,1129,126,5025,4064,4062,4094,4378,6924,2441,9647,9648,4502,953,2063,4095,373],"class_list":["post-119471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-northern-pintails","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-anas-acuta","tag-dabbling-ducks","tag-drake","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-feathers","tag-ice","tag-male","tag-marsh","tag-morning","tag-new-years-day","tag-northern-pintail","tag-pintail","tag-pintails","tag-shaking","tag-standing","tag-waterfowl","tag-wetlands","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