{"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_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":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mallard-hen-snow-mia-mcpherson-6111.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-ga9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":109334,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/01\/05\/dapper-mallard-drake-in-snow\/","url_meta":{"origin":62133,"position":0},"title":"Dapper Mallard Drake In Snow","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 5, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"After I photographed the handsome Gadwall drake that I shared yesterday I couldn't resist taking images of this alert and dapper Mallard drake in the snow.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dapper Mallard drake in snow, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mallard-drake-dapper-snow-mia-mcpherson-7562.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mallard-drake-dapper-snow-mia-mcpherson-7562.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mallard-drake-dapper-snow-mia-mcpherson-7562.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/mallard-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2839.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/mallard-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2839.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/mallard-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2839.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/mallard-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2839.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":40219,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/06\/28\/mallard-hen-with-duckling-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":62133,"position":2},"title":"Mallard Hen with Duckling at Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Because I was close I wasn't able to get a single image with all of the ducklings and the hen in the frame so I focused on the Mallard hen and with one duckling resting right behind her.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mallard hen with duckling, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/mallard-hen-duckling-mia-mcpherson-9146.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/mallard-hen-duckling-mia-mcpherson-9146.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/mallard-hen-duckling-mia-mcpherson-9146.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/mallard-hen-duckling-mia-mcpherson-9146.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":62432,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/06\/low-light-drake-mallard-portrait\/","url_meta":{"origin":62133,"position":3},"title":"Low Light Drake Mallard Portrait","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 6, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Because of the low light and snowy conditions on the first day of the year I did not take many photos of the birds that I saw but I did get a few mallard images that I liked.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Low light portrait of a Mallard drake resting in snow, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/mallard-drake-portrait-low-light-snow-mia-mcpherson-8677.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/mallard-drake-portrait-low-light-snow-mia-mcpherson-8677.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/mallard-drake-portrait-low-light-snow-mia-mcpherson-8677.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/mallard-drake-portrait-low-light-snow-mia-mcpherson-8677.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55019,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/11\/17\/mallard-hen-landing-in-the-golden-light-of-a-sunset\/","url_meta":{"origin":62133,"position":4},"title":"Mallard Hen Landing In The Golden Light Of A Sunset","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 17, 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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