{"id":122111,"date":"2024-02-27T04:01:18","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T11:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=122111"},"modified":"2024-02-27T04:35:30","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T11:35:30","slug":"drake-common-goldeneyes-in-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/02\/27\/drake-common-goldeneyes-in-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake Common Goldeneyes In Winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I took this photo of two drake Common Goldeneyes at Bear River MBR<\/span><\/a> almost two years ago, I was laughing as I hit my shutter button. I couldn’t help myself.<\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo drake Common Goldeneyes in winter \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The mohawk that the drake goldeneye on the left was sporting cracked me up. Maybe I should just call it a faux-hawk. The green-headed diving duck certainly looked punked out. That faux-hawk struck me as funny then, and it still does today.<\/p>\n

The drake Common Goldeneye may have been signaling the other drake that he had gotten too close. Perhaps he was just acting like a tough guy. I will never know for sure.<\/p>\n

I just know that the drake’s faux-hawk made me laugh out loud. It was probably a good thing I was alone that day, and that no one else was around. Thankfully the ducks didn’t seem bothered by my laughter at all.<\/p>\n

I’m going off track for a little bit here.<\/p>\n

I went through my late February images for all years last night and noticed something odd: I’ve never been in the field taking images on February 27th. Not once. As much as I wish I could rectify that, today’s forecast looks horrible. Cloudy, possible snow showers, and high winds aren’t great for finding birds, let alone photographing them.<\/p>\n

Come to think of it, I’ve never been in the field on February 29th either. Of course that only comes around every 4 years!<\/p>\n

Back to the Common Goldeneyes<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I hope the faux-hawk on the drake goldeneye makes you all laugh. Right now I think we could all use good laughs every day! I know I do.<\/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":"

When I took this photo of two drake Common Goldeneyes at Bear River MBR almost two years ago, I was laughing as I hit my shutter button. I couldn’t help myself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122108,"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":[124,27,1148,962,26],"tags":[4004,4053,4238,4520,4483,1129,126,14767,6348,5586,4062,4094,14766,3996,2063,4095,373],"class_list":["post-122111","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-common-goldeneyes","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-bucephala-clangula","tag-common-goldeneye","tag-drake","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-faux-hawk","tag-goldeneye","tag-goldeneyes","tag-male","tag-marsh","tag-mohawk","tag-water","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