{"id":43259,"date":"2016-11-26T06:19:46","date_gmt":"2016-11-26T13:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=43259"},"modified":"2025-02-06T04:48:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T10:48:22","slug":"red-breasted-mergansers-in-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/11\/26\/red-breasted-mergansers-in-utah\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-breasted Mergansers in Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know it is hard for some people to get excited about ducks and waterfowl but I really love seeing and photographing them. I spent the morning yesterday at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge hoping to see lots of ducks and swans.<\/p>\n

\"Red-breastedRed-breasted Merganser and snowy reflections – Nikon D200, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I did see the swans but they were too far away to photograph but they were close enough for me to enjoy hearing their calls reverberate over the marsh. I also saw ducks but they were also too far away and they weren’t in the high numbers I had anticipated seeing.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Before I could even get my lens up and resting on my noodle and before I could even focus my camera the mergansers flushed and flew west and I didn’t get a single image of them that I was happy with.<\/p>\n

It is hunting season on the refuge which might be why the mergansers flushed so easily. I wish I had an image of them flying away to share but that just didn’t work out.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this winter I will be able to get close enough to some mergansers to take high quality images of them but I have to say that large flock taking off yesterday from the Bear River is a visual memory I will enjoy for a long time to come. It isn’t always about the photos I take, it is also about the memories I create and being out in nature.<\/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

The Red-breasted Merganser image above was taken in November of 2010 at Farmington Bay WMA after a snow fall.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139354,"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":[970,4620,4094,4705,4704,277,140,4752,4328,2063,4095,4489,373],"class_list":["post-43259","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-autumn","tag-fall","tag-marsh","tag-merganser","tag-mergansers","tag-mergus-serrator","tag-red-breasted-merganser","tag-serrated-bill","tag-snowy","tag-waterfowl","tag-wetlands","tag-wing-flap","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/red-breasted-merganser-utah-mia-mcpherson-6498.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-bfJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2122,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/03\/20\/common-and-red-breasted-mergansers\/","url_meta":{"origin":43259,"position":0},"title":"Common and Red-breasted Mergansers","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Mergansers are considered \"diving ducks\" and one of the things the three species of mergansers found in North America all have in common are their serrated bills.","rel":"","context":"In "Bird ID"","block_context":{"text":"Bird ID","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/bird-identification\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult nonbreeding Common Merganser in Utah, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County,","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/common-merganser-mia-mcpherson-9392.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-mia-mcpherson-9392.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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2016","format":false,"excerpt":"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.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wing flapping Red-breasted Merganser, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/red-breasted-merganser-flapping-mia-mcpherson-6424.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-flapping-mia-mcpherson-6424.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/red-breasted-merganser-flapping-mia-mcpherson-6424.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 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McPherson","date":"September 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I photographed this Red-breasted Merganser floating on the Gulf of Mexico on an April morning from the shoreline at Fort De Soto, Florida in April of 2008.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-breasted Merganser high on a wave off of the Gulf Coast, 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-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, 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