{"id":50395,"date":"2017-12-29T05:59:52","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T12:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=50395"},"modified":"2025-09-02T10:58:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T15:58:03","slug":"mallards-in-flight-in-golden-afternoon-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/29\/mallards-in-flight-in-golden-afternoon-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Mallards In Flight In Golden Afternoon Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HenHen Mallards in flight in afternoon light – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Wow, here it is the last Friday of 2017 and 2018 is just a a few days away. Time flies and so do the birds I spend so many hours in the field photographing, observing and learning about.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I shared some of the photos I took of Common Mergansers flying in to land and lifting off<\/span><\/a> from a local pond on the 27th of December and today I am sharing a few photos of Mallards in flight that I took after I photographed the mergansers leaving the pond and just before I left to head home.<\/p>\n

\"ThreeThree Mallards in flight – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I wish I had been able to apply more depth of field prior to taking this photo to have all three dabbling ducks sharply in focus but I didn’t have time to change my settings before the ducks flew past me, I just focused on the closest bird which happened to be a female and once I had locked on I fired away.<\/p>\n

Mallards are a widespread and abundant bird species and are probably the most recognized and most studied ducks in the world. They are native to United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean but can be found in other parts of the world where they have been introduced. They are the first ducks I remember seeing and learning about as a small child and it is because of that I am fond of them even today.<\/p>\n

\"MallardMallard Hen flying over a pond in golden afternoon light – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Photographing the Mallards in flight in golden afternoon light was a terrific way to end my bird photography session for the evening. I feel that any day is terrific if I can start or end it photographing birds.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photographing the Mallards in flight in golden afternoon light was a terrific way to end my bird photography session for the evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111517,"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":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,965,709,26],"tags":[4004,5554,4237,4717,4483,1129,126,4070,4052,4122,4823,4062,1604,1984,8018,2063,373],"class_list":["post-50395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-mallards","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-afternoon-light","tag-anas-platyrhynchos","tag-dabbling-ducks","tag-drake","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-female","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-hens","tag-male","tag-mallard","tag-pond","tag-urban","tag-waterfowl","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/mallard-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2839.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-d6P","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":77816,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/01\/15\/photographing-winter-birds\/","url_meta":{"origin":50395,"position":0},"title":"Photographing 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"Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mallard drake flying in to land, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mallard-male-landing-mia-mcpherson-7237.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mallard-male-landing-mia-mcpherson-7237.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mallard-male-landing-mia-mcpherson-7237.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mallard-male-landing-mia-mcpherson-7237.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I locked on to one of the mallard drakes and when he flew past I was able to take some nice photos of him before he landed on the water","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Mallard drake in flight, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mallard-drake-flight-mia-mcpherson-4224.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mallard-drake-flight-mia-mcpherson-4224.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mallard-drake-flight-mia-mcpherson-4224.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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2018","format":false,"excerpt":"When I have the opportunity to take photos of birds in the sweet golden light of sunset I jump at the chance even if the bird is as common as a Mallard hen landing on a pond. 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