{"id":139526,"date":"2025-02-08T02:37:14","date_gmt":"2025-02-08T08:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=139526"},"modified":"2025-07-07T12:05:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T17:05:25","slug":"drake-lesser-scaup-on-the-great-salt-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/02\/08\/drake-lesser-scaup-on-the-great-salt-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake Lesser Scaup On The Great Salt Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning, I’m sharing two winter drake Lesser Scaup photos I took three years ago today from the causeway to Antelope Island State Park in Utah.<\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Lesser Scaup shaking off after bathing \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 640, +0.7 V, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I remember that morning feeling especially wintery, with a frigid North wind blowing off the hypersaline Great Salt Lake.<\/p>\n

There were thousands of ducks of many species on the small area of open water near the bridge just before the island.<\/p>\n

Among them were quite a few Lesser Scaup, a diving duck species I don\u2019t have many photos of. Because of that, I focused on the scaup quite a bit.<\/p>\n

This male Lesser Scaup had just finished bathing when I zeroed in on him to take photos. He certainly gave me some nice poses!<\/p>\n

\"WinterWinter drake Lesser Scaup on the Great Salt Lake \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 640, +0.7 V, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m tickled that I can continue photographing Lesser Scaup<\/span><\/a> here in Arkansas and Oklahoma, along with Greater Scaup too.<\/p>\n

Greater and Lesser Scaup do look similar and identifying them can be tricky. Check this out for help with ID: Help With Drake Scaup Identification<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Maybe I’ll finally take my dream photos of both species soon, after the weather clears up, hopefully.<\/p>\n

I’ll see!<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

This morning, I’m sharing two winter drake Lesser Scaup photos I took three years ago today from the causeway to Antelope Island State Park in Utah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139521,"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":[511,27,1022,2681,26],"tags":[4004,2682,4373,464,4753,4483,4005,5993,4564,4062,12629,6400,6401,14806,3996,2063,373],"class_list":["post-139526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-lesser-scaups","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-aythya-affinis","tag-bathing","tag-causeway","tag-diving-ducks","tag-drake","tag-great-salt-lake","tag-hypersaline-lake","tag-lesser-scaup","tag-male","tag-post-bath","tag-scaup","tag-scaups","tag-shaking-off","tag-water","tag-waterfowl","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/lesser-scaup-drake-mia-mcpherson-9033.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-Aiq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":119952,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/01\/20\/ring-necked-duck-and-an-odd-lesser-scaup\/","url_meta":{"origin":139526,"position":0},"title":"Ring-necked Duck And An Odd Lesser Scaup","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 20, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Seven days ago I found a Ring-necked Duck and an odd Lesser Scaup drake at my local pond. The scaup puzzled me and I wondered if he might be a hybrid.","rel":"","context":"In "Bird ID"","block_context":{"text":"Bird ID","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/bird-identification\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ring-necked Duck and an odd Lesser Scaup, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/ring-necked-duck-and-weird-scaup-mia-mcpherson-1489.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/ring-necked-duck-and-weird-scaup-mia-mcpherson-1489.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/ring-necked-duck-and-weird-scaup-mia-mcpherson-1489.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/lesser-scaup-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-6489.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/lesser-scaup-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-6489.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/lesser-scaup-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-6489.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/lesser-scaup-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-6489.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51240,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/03\/13\/drake-lesser-scaup-in-salt-lake-county\/","url_meta":{"origin":139526,"position":2},"title":"Drake Lesser Scaup in Salt Lake County","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The drake Lesser Scaup did come in close enough to be able to take a few images of it where it almost filled the frame before a man and his dog walked by and caused the scaup to make a hasty retreat to the middle of the pond.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lesser Scaup drake floating on a pond, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/lesser-scaup-drake-pond-mia-mcpherson-6558.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/lesser-scaup-drake-pond-mia-mcpherson-6558.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This Greater Scaup drake is making the transition into his breeding plumage and was in among American Coots, a resting female scaup, Pied-Billed Grebes and a single Canvasback.","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":"Greater Scaup drake, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/greater-scaup-drake-mia-mcpherson-9265.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/greater-scaup-drake-mia-mcpherson-9265.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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