{"id":78044,"date":"2021-01-20T05:53:17","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T12:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=78044"},"modified":"2025-09-02T09:10:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T14:10:28","slug":"mallard-hen-on-slippery-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/01\/20\/mallard-hen-on-slippery-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"Mallard Hen On Slippery Ice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MallardMallard hen landing on slick ice \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week I took a series of photos of a Mallard hen as she landed on slippery ice at a pond close to home in Salt Lake City. The hen appears to have some domestic genes but I am not going to hold that against her because she is as free to come and go as any wild bird.<\/p>\n

I saw the Mallard hen flying in and took photos of her as she approached the ice. With her wings spread I clipped her wings or feet in every frame.<\/p>\n

When she touched down on the ice I was able to photograph her sliding across the pond and fortunately didn’t clip a thing in these four images.<\/p>\n

\"MallardMallard hen sliding on ice \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

As I took these photos I was giggling because the Mallard hen looked funny sliding around on the ice. She was still using her wings to help slow down her forward momentum when I took this photo.<\/p>\n

\"HenHen Mallard sliding on her belly on ice \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

And in this frame it looked as though her feet were trying to pass her belly. It was this image that made me laugh the most when I view it at home on my large screen.<\/p>\n

It was also the photo that convinced me to share these images here today.\u00a0 She appeared to be looking directly at me.<\/p>\n

\"MallardMallard Hen on an icy pond \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When the Mallard hen stopped sliding across the ice she was able to stand up and recovered from a slippery situation. I’d like to say that she walked away gracefully. Truthfully though, she waddled away.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Last week I took a series of photos of a Mallard hen as she landed on slippery ice at a pond close to home in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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],"tags":[4237,10904,4717,1129,126,4070,4359,4064,4123,1604,7951,1984,5493,373],"class_list":["post-78044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-mallards","tag-anas-platyrhynchos","tag-dabbling","tag-dabbling-ducks","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-female","tag-hen","tag-ice","tag-landing","tag-mallard","tag-mallards","tag-pond","tag-sliding","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mallard-hen-on-ice-mia-mcpherson-5488.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-kiM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":109008,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/12\/26\/made-it-through-christmas-and-i-am-just-ducky\/","url_meta":{"origin":78044,"position":0},"title":"Made It Through Christmas And I Am Just Ducky","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, I made it through the Christmas part of the holidays this year in one piece and I am feeling just ducky.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hen Mallard on ice with a feather on her bill, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/mallard-hen-on-ice-mia-mcpherson-6474.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/mallard-hen-on-ice-mia-mcpherson-6474.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/mallard-hen-on-ice-mia-mcpherson-6474.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/mallard-hen-on-ice-mia-mcpherson-6474.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":108855,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/12\/20\/mallard-hen-on-silky-water\/","url_meta":{"origin":78044,"position":1},"title":"Mallard Hen On Silky Water","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"While at one of my local ponds two days ago, the only birds I photographed were ducks. 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