Male Common Merganser In Flight
I find photos of ducks in flight difficult to come by and because of their speed mergansers are among the most challenging of all.
Category: Common Mergansers
Common Mergansers – Competition Among The Disadvantaged
I told this story seven years ago but this time I’m including more details and using mostly different photos.
Male Common Mergansers In Flight
I don’t post a lot of ducks but mergansers of any species (there are three of them in North America) are among my favorites.
A Good Samaritan At A Local Pond
One-footed Merganser Running Across The Water
A Trio Of Common Mergansers In Flight
A Mixed Bag Of Recent Birds
Occasionally I review my recent images and look for photos that I may have missed that hold some interest for me. This is a collection of eight of those images, taken over the past several weeks.
My Male Merganser Miracle Shots
I have no idea how I was able to get this bird in frame in time, much less lock focus on it.
Ducks Fighting, Mergansers Flying And Geese Mating
Male Common Merganser In A Natural Vignette
I’m generally not a fan of vignettes in nature photography because to me they seem unnatural and pretentious.
A Common Merganser And A Depth Of Field Issue
It’s my contention that “muscle memory”, fast reflexes and quick thinking are more important in bird photography than they are in most other types of photography.
One-footed Merganser – Giving Up On An Old Friend
The older I get the more I root for the underdog and this merganser has been near the top of my underdog list for three years now.
A Survivor! Last Year’s One-footed Merganser Has Returned
With all the recent bad news about critters suffering and dying at the hand of man it’s so refreshing to come across one who has defied the odds and not only survived, but thrived!
Promised Update On Mergansers Entangled In Fishing Line
Some of you may remember that on February 17th I posted about the problem of birds getting caught in discarded fishing line at Willow Pond, one of our urban fisheries here in Murray, Utah. I had photographed some Common Mergansers that had fishing line entangled on their bodies and fish hooks stuck in their bills. This merganser had lost a foot to fishing line. Another had a fish-hook stuck in its bill and other ducks had line wrapped around their legs and wings. Here’s a link to that original post: https://featheredphotography.com/blog/2013/02/17/one-footed-merganser-in-a-hurry/#comment-21517 In comments, many of you were as disturbed as I was about the carelessness of anglers and the resulting suffering of birds and some suggested a variety of methods to help address the issue. I chose to contact Tom Wharton, a long-time and highly respected columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, to see if he was interested in doing a story on the situation at Willow Pond. When I sent him a link to the merganser post he responded almost immediately and asked if I would meet him at the pond and give him some background. So a couple of days later Mia and I met him at the pond and spent most of an hour with him reviewing the situation. He was enthusiastic about writing a column on the subject and trying to help birds. That column was published three days ago but I’ve been on a camping/photo trip and couldn’t post about it until now. But since many of you had asked me to update any developments…
One-footed Merganser In A Hurry
I live near a local fishing pond that attracts a few fish-eating birds, particularly in the late winter and early spring. For the last few days there’s been a pair of Common Mergansers on the pond and yesterday morning I was finally able to get relatively close to them for a few minutes. The pond was still about half covered with ice but it’s melting fast. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light Most of the time there wasn’t much action with the cormorants but once, when this bird apparently thought its companion might have caught a fish, it rushed over to investigate. It wasn’t until this morning when I began culling and processing the images that I noticed that it was missing its left foot. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light Since they use their webbed feet to help propel them along the surface of the water this bird could really scoot for having only one foot. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light This image shows the missing foot best. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light This shot, and the next two, are of the other merganser. As you can see it had some kind of fishing lure/hook stuck in its lower mandible. It doesn’t look like a typical lure so perhaps it’s what’s left of a fish that it had tried to swallow when the hook and/or line got stuck in its bill. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500…
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Common Mergansers – Competition Among The Disadvantaged
I told this story seven years ago but this time I’m including more details and using mostly different photos.
Male Common Mergansers In Flight
I don’t post a lot of ducks but mergansers of any species (there are three of them in North America) are among my favorites.
A Good Samaritan At A Local Pond
One-footed Merganser Running Across The Water
A Trio Of Common Mergansers In Flight
A Mixed Bag Of Recent Birds
Occasionally I review my recent images and look for photos that I may have missed that hold some interest for me. This is a collection of eight of those images, taken over the past several weeks.
My Male Merganser Miracle Shots
I have no idea how I was able to get this bird in frame in time, much less lock focus on it.
Ducks Fighting, Mergansers Flying And Geese Mating
Male Common Merganser In A Natural Vignette
I’m generally not a fan of vignettes in nature photography because to me they seem unnatural and pretentious.
A Common Merganser And A Depth Of Field Issue
It’s my contention that “muscle memory”, fast reflexes and quick thinking are more important in bird photography than they are in most other types of photography.
One-footed Merganser – Giving Up On An Old Friend
The older I get the more I root for the underdog and this merganser has been near the top of my underdog list for three years now.
A Survivor! Last Year’s One-footed Merganser Has Returned
With all the recent bad news about critters suffering and dying at the hand of man it’s so refreshing to come across one who has defied the odds and not only survived, but thrived!
Promised Update On Mergansers Entangled In Fishing Line
Some of you may remember that on February 17th I posted about the problem of birds getting caught in discarded fishing line at Willow Pond, one of our urban fisheries here in Murray, Utah. I had photographed some Common Mergansers that had fishing line entangled on their bodies and fish hooks stuck in their bills. This merganser had lost a foot to fishing line. Another had a fish-hook stuck in its bill and other ducks had line wrapped around their legs and wings. Here’s a link to that original post: https://featheredphotography.com/blog/2013/02/17/one-footed-merganser-in-a-hurry/#comment-21517 In comments, many of you were as disturbed as I was about the carelessness of anglers and the resulting suffering of birds and some suggested a variety of methods to help address the issue. I chose to contact Tom Wharton, a long-time and highly respected columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, to see if he was interested in doing a story on the situation at Willow Pond. When I sent him a link to the merganser post he responded almost immediately and asked if I would meet him at the pond and give him some background. So a couple of days later Mia and I met him at the pond and spent most of an hour with him reviewing the situation. He was enthusiastic about writing a column on the subject and trying to help birds. That column was published three days ago but I’ve been on a camping/photo trip and couldn’t post about it until now. But since many of you had asked me to update any developments…
One-footed Merganser In A Hurry
I live near a local fishing pond that attracts a few fish-eating birds, particularly in the late winter and early spring. For the last few days there’s been a pair of Common Mergansers on the pond and yesterday morning I was finally able to get relatively close to them for a few minutes. The pond was still about half covered with ice but it’s melting fast. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light Most of the time there wasn’t much action with the cormorants but once, when this bird apparently thought its companion might have caught a fish, it rushed over to investigate. It wasn’t until this morning when I began culling and processing the images that I noticed that it was missing its left foot. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light Since they use their webbed feet to help propel them along the surface of the water this bird could really scoot for having only one foot. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light This image shows the missing foot best. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light This shot, and the next two, are of the other merganser. As you can see it had some kind of fishing lure/hook stuck in its lower mandible. It doesn’t look like a typical lure so perhaps it’s what’s left of a fish that it had tried to swallow when the hook and/or line got stuck in its bill. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500…