![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/common-goldeneye-6979-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"common-goldeneye-6979-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nPlus a critter who woke up too early. Way too early.<\/p>\n
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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This time of year on the west side of the Bear River MBR auto tour loop there’s often only a narrow strip of open water between the road and the rest of the ice-covered impoundment. So waterfowl confined to the open water close to the road often feel threatened by approaching vehicles and take off before you can get good morning light on them. They feel even more threatened when you stop your vehicle so you typically have to be very quick on the trigger to have a chance of photographing them before they’re gone.<\/p>\n That’s what happened here. The dark line directly behind the goldeneye is the ice\/water boundary. Because of the ice the duck couldn’t swim away from me so he chose to take off to the south and this old man’s reflexes were quick enough to get him in focus and keep him in frame for this photo taken at the beginning of his explosive takeoff.<\/p>\n In situations like this I like water splashes in my photos so I’ve cropped the image unconventionally to include most of it. The bird is strongly side lit but I think the photo still works and works pretty well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A vertical composition of the same photo makes the bird larger in the frame at the expense of losing most of the water splash. A strongly side lit black and white bird is a tough exposure so I was pleased and just a little surprised by how well the image turned out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I photographed the goldeneye on January 9, eight days ago. Six days after that, on January 15, I was stunned when I was able to document a mammal outside its burrow that should be hibernating for another couple of months.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Yellow-bellied Marmot was sunning itself atop a rock outcrop high above me on a morning that had been 10\u00b0 F. not long before I took the photo. I’m sure it was still about 15\u00b0 below freezing when I got this marmot in my viewfinder.<\/p>\n Marmots are true hibernators and this one should have still been in its burrow, oblivious to the world. Around here I usually don’t see the first marmots until sometime in March. This from the National Park Service about Yellow-bellied Marmots:<\/p>\n “Marmots spend over half their lives in hibernation. They enter their burrows in September to early October and don’t emerge again until the following April or May.”<\/em><\/p>\n These days most everything seems to be wonky, including our politics, our health and poor old Mother Nature. Like most everyone else I yearn for ‘normalcy’, whatever that is.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Late Addendum:<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Do any locals know what was going on here?<\/em><\/p>\n Mid-morning yesterday there was what appeared to be a large fire in the Wasatch Mountains near Croydon and southwest of Lost Creek Reservoir. To give you an idea of distance and scale this photo was taken from miles away from the fire’s source. I haven’t seen any news reports about it and I’m quite curious.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n PS – Soon after I posted this photo I got an answer to my question<\/a><\/span><\/span> from friend and fellow photographer Judy Watson. Thanks, Judy.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Plus a critter who woke up too early. Way too early. (3 images)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/common-goldeneye-6979-vertical-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"common-goldeneye-6979-vertical-ron-dudley\\"")
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