{"id":75915,"date":"2020-12-08T05:29:36","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T12:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=75915"},"modified":"2025-03-28T04:14:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T09:14:59","slug":"diving-american-coot-breaking-my-own-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/12\/08\/diving-american-coot-breaking-my-own-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Diving American Coot – Breaking My Own Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DivingDiving American Coot \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday I photographed frosty Northern Harriers, American Kestrels, foraging Killdeer, a wading Great Blue Heron, several Red-tailed Hawks, one male Rough-legged Hawk, four Bald Eagles, a confiding Song Sparrow, immature and adult White-crowned Sparrows, and a female Common Goldeneye but the bird that got me the most excited yesterday morning was an American Coot.<\/p>\n

Why did a plain American Coot photo excite me? Because I finally took the image of one I have wanted to take for years. I’ve wanted a photo of an American Coot diving where its head was in the water with its rear end and legs above the water. I do wish the coot’s feet were visible in this image because they have fascinating feet but everything else in the photo is exactly how I wanted this image to be.<\/p>\n

Typically I have a personal rule about having eye contact with my subject and I also want a catch light but to get this coot photo I had to break my own bird photography rules. I know that this image won’t appeal to everyone which is absolutely okay because I took this photo for me as I do for all of my photos.<\/p>\n

Out of all the images I took yesterday this was the one that I was most interested in seeing on my large screen. An American Coot image that made my day.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Typically I have a personal rule about having eye contact with my subject and I also want a catch light but to get this coot photo I had to break my own bird photography rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142077,"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":[137,27,1022,697,26],"tags":[4004,4010,5756,2772,2773,4159,7755,4121,4094,10710,10711,3996,373],"class_list":["post-75915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-coots","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-american-coot","tag-catch-light","tag-coot","tag-coots","tag-diving","tag-eye-contact","tag-fulica-americana","tag-marsh","tag-rules","tag-subject","tag-water","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