{"id":17154,"date":"2014-11-18T05:18:36","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T12:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=17154"},"modified":"2025-11-18T07:16:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T13:16:05","slug":"edit-greater-scaup-drake-at-bear-river-national-wildlife-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/11\/18\/edit-greater-scaup-drake-at-bear-river-national-wildlife-refuge\/","title":{"rendered":"Greater Scaup Drake At Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GreaterGreater Scaup drake – Nikon D810, f8, 1.500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

It was crisp, clear and very cold yesterday morning at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> where I saw a low of 8\u00b0F but it was great being back there. The Bear River had ice on it and so did many of the units on the auto tour route. I was hoping to see my first Bald Eagles or Tundra Swans of the winter season there but that did not happen.<\/p>\n

I did see loads of ducks.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It had warmed up to about 14\u00b0F by the time I found them and the coots were actively feeding. It is a challenge at time to isolate just one bird when they are grouped up like they were but in this image I like the out of focus grebe in the background.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_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":[124,27,1148,964,26],"tags":[4004,970,973,4008,4753,4483,1129,126,4620,2440,4062,4094,6400,6401,3996,2063,4095],"class_list":["post-17154","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-greater-scaups","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-aythya-marila","tag-box-elder-county","tag-diving-ducks","tag-drake","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-fall","tag-greater-scaup","tag-male","tag-marsh","tag-scaup","tag-scaups","tag-water","tag-waterfowl","tag-wetlands"],"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