{"id":42885,"date":"2016-10-28T06:35:08","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T12:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=42885"},"modified":"2025-02-06T03:50:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T09:50:46","slug":"red-breasted-mergansers-are-back-in-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/10\/28\/red-breasted-mergansers-are-back-in-utah\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-breasted Mergansers Are Back In Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WingWing flapping Red-breasted Merganser – Taken at Farmington Bay WMA in 2010
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Two days ago\u00a0I saw several rafts of Red-breasted Mergansers at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> and that excited me because I like to photograph them but the ones I saw weren’t too cooperative and flew away rather quickly.<\/p>\n

Red-breasted Mergansers do not breed in Utah, they breed much further north in Alaska, across northern Canada to New Newfoundland and the Great Lakes of Michigan, but they do migrate through this area.\u00a0 I hope I have plenty of opportunities to photograph them at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Farmington Bay WMA and closer to home at some local ponds during fall and spring migration.<\/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

 <\/p>\n

I really don’t have much to say this morning because I feel extremely disappointed and dumbfounded about the defendants being found not guilty in the armed takeover of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. I am angry that these extremists took over OUR refuge, held it hostage for weeks and I feel that justice was not served. I hope that justice will be served in Nevada.
\n<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Red-breasted Mergansers do not breed in Utah, they breed much further north in Alaska, across northern Canada to New Newfoundland and the Great Lakes of Michigan but they do migrate through this area. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139339,"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":[27,1022,697,133,26],"tags":[126,4705,4704,277,140,4050,2063,4489,373],"class_list":["post-42885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-red-breasted-mergansers","category-utah","tag-ducks-2","tag-merganser","tag-mergansers","tag-mergus-serrator","tag-red-breasted-merganser","tag-snow","tag-waterfowl","tag-wing-flap","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/red-breasted-merganser-flapping-mia-mcpherson-6424.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-b9H","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":43259,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/11\/26\/red-breasted-mergansers-in-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":42885,"position":0},"title":"Red-breasted Mergansers in Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Near the auto tour route though I saw what appeared to be 250 to 300 Red-breasted Mergansers on the Bear River. I think it was the largest raft of Red-breasted Mergansers I have ever seen.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-breasted Merganser and snowy reflections, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/red-breasted-merganser-utah-mia-mcpherson-6498.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/red-breasted-merganser-utah-mia-mcpherson-6498.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/red-breasted-merganser-utah-mia-mcpherson-6498.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Common Mergansers lately and today I thought I would because we should start seeing them soon here in northern Utah.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Resting mature Common Merganser drake in Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/common-merganser-drake-breeding-plumage-mia-mcpherson-9665.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/common-merganser-drake-breeding-plumage-mia-mcpherson-9665.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/common-merganser-drake-breeding-plumage-mia-mcpherson-9665.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Heat","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in February there was still snow on the ground, ice on the water and Common Mergansers were at Farmington Bay WMA and some were sporting their breeding plumage.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Drake Common Merganser in icy water and breeding plumage, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/common-merganser-winter-drake-mia-mcpherson-0427.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/common-merganser-winter-drake-mia-mcpherson-0427.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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