{"id":14822,"date":"2014-04-24T05:09:28","date_gmt":"2014-04-24T11:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=14822"},"modified":"2025-07-21T09:37:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T14:37:45","slug":"red-breasted-merganser-at-rest-on-the-gulf-shore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/04\/24\/red-breasted-merganser-at-rest-on-the-gulf-shore\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-breasted Merganser At Rest On The Gulf Shore"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Red-breastedRed-breasted Merganser at rest on the Gulf shore\u00a0– D200, handheld, full frame, f7.1, 1\/640. ISO 200, 80-400mm VR at 360mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve mentioned in another post that “Some Days are Magic<\/a><\/span>”\u00a0and I felt that magic the morning I\u00a0created this image of a Red-breasted Merganser at rest was just such a day.<\/p>\n

I’d gotten home the night before from a wonderful trip that I had taken with my mother\u00a0and wanted to sink my feet in the warm sugar sand at Fort De Soto County Park<\/a><\/span> and photograph some birds. I’d missed being on north beach and I had missed seeing the birds.<\/p>\n

When Red-breasted Mergansers are feeding in the shallow waters of the Gulf and tidal lagoons they are partly submerged and\u00a0usually you can see their backs just above the surface of the water.<\/p>\n

They move extremely fast, zipping through the lagoon so quickly it is hard to track them with a lens. It must be exhausting because there were several times I observed mergansers calmly resting after they had been feeding.<\/p>\n

This Red-breasted Merganser was at rest after feeding when I came upon it and photographed it for about 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

At that point I turned to photograph another bird and when I turned back around the merganser had slipped back into the Gulf. It felt very special to me to lay on the shoreline and photograph this bird.<\/p>\n

While I photographed this merganser I laid flat on my stomach in the sand to get a very low angle while shallow wavelets soaked my clothes.<\/p>\n

You just don’t know how good that feels when the temps are in the 90’s in FL until you do it!.<\/p>\n

In this image one of those shallow incoming waves produced an almost mirror-like effect that I find quite pleasing.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0a previous version that I had edited and posted on a nature photo critique forum I had\u00a0cloned out\u00a0the one small\u00a0out of focus\u00a0shell fragment in front of the two that are to the side of the merganser’s breast.<\/p>\n

I decided not to do that in this version because as I have grown as a photographer so has my resistance to manipulate what I photograph in post processing unnecessarily.<\/p>\n

I prefer to leave my images as close as possible to what was created in the camera to show the natural; though perhaps imperfect, beauty of the bird and setting.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

I’ve mentioned in another post that “Some Days are Magic” and I felt that magic the morning I created this image of a Red-breasted Merganser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,2000,133],"tags":[4004,4753,4070,173,4077,4359,4705,4704,277,11218,140,9814,4156,4891,165,3996,2063,4119],"class_list":["post-14822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-red-breasted-mergansers","tag-adult","tag-diving-ducks","tag-female","tag-gulf-coast","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-hen","tag-merganser","tag-mergansers","tag-mergus-serrator","tag-mirror-like-effect","tag-red-breasted-merganser","tag-rest","tag-resting","tag-shore","tag-spring","tag-water","tag-waterfowl","tag-waves"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-breasted-merganser-resting-waves-mia-mcpherson-9790.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-3R4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15426,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/07\/19\/move-a-little-red-breasted-merganser\/","url_meta":{"origin":14822,"position":0},"title":"Move A Little – Red-breasted Merganser","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Moving; even just a little bit, can change the background of an image even when the subject is stationary.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Resting Red-breasted Merganser on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/red-breasted-merganser-resting-mia-mcpherson-9770.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/red-breasted-merganser-resting-mia-mcpherson-9770.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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"Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-breasted Merganser diving into a wave on the Gulf Coast, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/red-breasted-merganser-wave-mia-mcpherson-8561.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/red-breasted-merganser-wave-mia-mcpherson-8561.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/red-breasted-merganser-wave-mia-mcpherson-8561.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/red-breasted-merganser-wave-mia-mcpherson-8561.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/red-breasted-merganser-gulf-mia-mcpherson-5387.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/red-breasted-merganser-gulf-mia-mcpherson-5387.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/red-breasted-merganser-gulf-mia-mcpherson-5387.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/red-breasted-merganser-gulf-mia-mcpherson-5387.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14033,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/01\/30\/red-breasted-merganser-on-the-gulf-of-mexico\/","url_meta":{"origin":14822,"position":3},"title":"Red-breasted Merganser On The Gulf Of Mexico","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes I find an image appealing because of the memories it wakes up and not so much from the technical or compositional aspects, this Red-breasted Merganser image is one that isn't perfect but it does awaken memories and stirs my senses.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-breasted Merganser drake in eclipse plumage on the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/red-breasted-merganser-florida-mia-mcpherson-5952.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/red-breasted-merganser-florida-mia-mcpherson-5952.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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