{"id":137856,"date":"2024-12-15T02:46:04","date_gmt":"2024-12-15T08:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=137856"},"modified":"2025-11-06T17:23:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T23:23:51","slug":"storm-wigeon-its-a-crap-shot-the-story-behind-this-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/12\/15\/storm-wigeon-its-a-crap-shot-the-story-behind-this-image\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm Wigeon – It’s A Crap Shot – The Story Behind This Image"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no way to deny that this is a crap shot of a Storm Wigeon. This awful photo was taken at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma last week.<\/p>\n

\"CrappyCrappy Storm Wigeon photo from Sequoyah NWR<\/span><\/p>\n

I can tell the story behind this image, and that is exactly what I plan to do. The story begins a long time ago.<\/p>\n

For as long as I\u2019ve been photographing American Wigeons, I\u2019ve hoped to find and take high-quality images of a Storm Wigeon. A Storm Wigeon is a color morph of a male American Wigeon, likely occurring in just 1 out of every 500 or 1,000 drake wigeons.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been searching for one for years. Each and every time I photograph flocks of American Wigeons, I find myself scanning through the flock, hoping to spot a Storm Wigeon.<\/p>\n

The Storm Wigeon might as well have been a purple unicorn. I\u2019ve consistently dipped on finding one, until last week, that is.<\/p>\n

Steve Creek<\/span><\/a> and I were at the refuge at the Four Corner Slough, where many dabbling ducks were present. An injured drake Gadwall was on the slough, and I took a few long-distance images of him for documentation. I recall remarking that there weren\u2019t any diving ducks present, which I found interesting.<\/p>\n

We left the refuge after having a nice morning there and I didn’t think anything more about the duck photos I took until I uploaded them to my hard drive.<\/p>\n

While I was reviewing the photos I had taken, I scrolled through the duck flock images and found the purple unicorn. By that, I mean I saw the Storm Wigeon I had searched for so long.<\/p>\n

My Storm Wigeon photo isn\u2019t high quality. In fact, it\u2019s the poorest quality image I believe I\u2019ve ever shared on my site.<\/p>\n

And when I photographed the rare wigeon, I didn’t even know it was there on the slough.<\/p>\n

Maybe one day I’ll finally get the Storm Wigeon<\/span><\/a> photo I’ve been dreaming of. Until then, I’m going to laugh about this image. Laughter is great.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

This image is a huge crop of the original photo and shows what was in the top-right portion of the file.<\/p>\n

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

There is no way to deny that this is a crap shot of a Storm Wigeon. This awful photo was taken at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137855,"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":[6312,13973,13974],"tags":[4004,6313,970,13984,16034,4717,4483,4620,16033,4062,6314,8277,1902,13976,16032,3996,2063,4095,6315,6316],"class_list":["post-137856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-wigeons","category-oklahoma","category-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-adult","tag-american-wigeon","tag-autumn","tag-bottomlands","tag-color-morph","tag-dabbling-ducks","tag-drake","tag-fall","tag-four-corners-slough","tag-male","tag-mareca-americana","tag-plumage-variation","tag-rare","tag-slough","tag-storm-wigeon","tag-water","tag-waterfowl","tag-wetlands","tag-wigeon","tag-wigeons"],"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