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<\/p>\nSurprised me too. And made me laugh at his expense.<\/p>\n
Like many ducks, Common Goldeneyes run across the water during takeoff. Their churning webbed feet pushing backward against the dense water accelerate them quickly. Readers already know that I often attempt to photograph them during takeoff but it isn’t easy. Their buzz saw legs and feet accelerate them so quickly, even explosively and often in an unpredictable direction, that I’ve found getting photos of them during the process to be nigh on impossible.<\/p>\n
Two days ago at Bear River MBR I tried again, many times. I never got any great photos but I did catch one male goldeneye during a takeoff that I’m sure didn’t go as planned.<\/p>\n
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As I approached the group of goldeneyes that were confined to a narrow strip of open water parallel to the road my pickup made them nervous, it always does. The strip of open water is too close to the road for their comfort so they nearly always take off, often at the exact moment my pickup stops. So as I creep forward, in order to have any chance of accomplishing my goal, I have to have my lens out the window and semi-aimed at them before I come to a complete stop. For whatever reason they nearly always take off to the north, to my left.<\/p>\n
But unexpectedly this immature male turned to the south just before exploding from the water a nanosecond before I could snap my first photo. This is his first wing beat immediately after his webbed feet propelled him forward and slightly upward out of the water. Normally he’d continue to churn the water with his feet to gain speed horizontally before eventually rising above the water’s surface in full flight.<\/p>\n
But this guy was in for a surprise.<\/p>\n
Look below his right foot. What you see is the interface between water and ice immediately in front of him. Pushing backward with your feet against slippery ice in order to accelerate quickly just… doesn’t… work.<\/p>\n
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So instead of accelerating quickly, for just a moment he almost looked like he was running in place as his feet slipped on the ice.<\/p>\n
He did gain some acceleration from his wings but he didn’t accelerate anywhere near as fast as they usually do. And that’s almost certainly the reason I was able to keep him in frame for a few photos before he was gone.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/common-goldeneye-1405-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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He’s sure not moving forward very fast.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/common-goldeneye-1406-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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In this last photo it may look like he’s really striding out but it was mostly in vain. Notice that even in this fourth shot we can still see the ice\/water interface and part of his initial water splash close behind him at lower left.<\/p>\n
I actually noticed him slipping through my viewfinder because his little feet were going a helluva lot faster then he was and I remember chuckling at what I’d just seen. I wish still photos would allow us to see the actual slipping like video would but here we’re stuck with the limitations of photography.<\/p>\n
Maybe you had to be there to fully appreciate it.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Surprised me too. And made me laugh at his expense.<\/p>\n