{"id":62133,"date":"2019-12-18T05:43:07","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T12:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=62133"},"modified":"2025-09-02T07:56:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T12:56:54","slug":"hen-mallard-in-fresh-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/12\/18\/hen-mallard-in-fresh-snow\/","title":{"rendered":"Hen Mallard In Fresh Snow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MallardMallard hen walking in fresh snow – Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/4000, ISO 500, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I did get out into the field yesterday and went looking for birds.<\/p>\n

I saw a total of eleven Golden Eagles, one Prairie Falcon, one large falcon I couldn’t ID because it was backlit, numerous Bald Eagles, one Rough-legged Hawk, too many Red-tailed Hawks and American Kestrels to count, about a hundred Ring-necked Pheasants, a few Northern Harriers, several flocks of Common Ravens, and other small birds.<\/p>\n

But I also found disappointment because almost every image I took yesterday was soft.<\/p>\n

From the first pair of Golden Eagles feeding on road kill to the last one I photographed lifting off from a cell tower. The temp was in the mid teens and I am fairly certain my soft images were caused by heat wave distortion, hot air coming out the windows and from below the vehicle I was in being used as a mobile blind mixing in front of my lens that was sticking out the window.<\/p>\n

When there was a slight breeze yesterday morning I got a few sharp photos, when there wasn’t they were out of focus and soft.<\/p>\n

It is disappointing to go all that distance, to work hard finding birds and to know the images were soft before I even got back home. But that kind of frustration can happen to photographers. It just does.<\/p>\n

The good thing is that I got out, I found and saw birds and my eyes feasted on the beauty of surrounding countryside.<\/p>\n

But, I digress.<\/p>\n

This post is about this pretty little Mallard hen walking in the fresh snow that fell during the night two days ago.<\/p>\n

The snow was so light that it took very little effort to clean it off of my Jeep. There weren’t many birds around the local pond that morning but the sun was shining, the snow looked gorgeous, and this dabbling duck just happened to be in my viewfinder.<\/p>\n

And just having her there reminded me that life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

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

This post is about this pretty little Mallard hen walking in the fresh snow that fell during the night two days ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_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":[27,510,965,709,26],"tags":[4237,4717,1129,126,1023,8157,5590,1604,7951,10698,1984,4050,8018,4236,2063,373],"class_list":["post-62133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-frustrations-in-bird-photography","category-mallards","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-anas-platyrhynchos","tag-dabbling-ducks","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-frustrations-in-bird-photography1","tag-heat-wave-distortion","tag-heat-waves","tag-mallard","tag-mallards","tag-park","tag-pond","tag-snow","tag-urban","tag-walking","tag-waterfowl","tag-winter"],"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