{"id":55505,"date":"2018-01-06T05:21:19","date_gmt":"2018-01-06T12:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=55505"},"modified":"2018-01-06T06:09:13","modified_gmt":"2018-01-06T13:09:13","slug":"male-common-goldeneye-in-flight-and-flaring-to-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/06\/male-common-goldeneye-in-flight-and-flaring-to-land\/","title":{"rendered":"Male Common Goldeneye In Flight And Flaring To Land"},"content":{"rendered":"

Goldeneyes in flight are a work in progress for me but I think I’m making some headway.<\/p>\n

Common Goldeneyes are fast, twitchy and erratic flyers especially when coming\u00a0in to land on water so I find them extremely challenging to photograph in flight. I don’t get much practice with them because they’re only here in Utah\u00a0during winter in relatively small numbers (most of these birds winter on coastal bays or large\u00a0rivers). About the only thing I have going for me with this species is their fast wingbeat (9 beats\/sec) that produces a whistling sound especially in cold weather so I can often hear them approaching and that does give me some advantage.<\/p>\n

That whistling sound gave rise to their colloquial name, “whistler”.<\/p>\n

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1\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 1250, 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

I photographed this adult male late yesterday afternoon as he came in to land on a local pond. As you can see from my camera settings lighting was marginal especially for a fast, erratic and relatively small\u00a0duck in flight but there was just enough light to get a hint of\u00a0the iridescent greens\u00a0on his head.<\/p>\n

I was only able to lock focus on him for two shots in a short,\u00a0quick burst.<\/p>\n

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1\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 1250, 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 is my favorite of the two because only .1 second later he’s already in a full flare posture\u00a0in order to\u00a0quickly slow his air speed in preparation for landing on the water. He’s using his entire body including wings and spread webbed feet to increase drag and slow down for a more controlled landing and I think that angle of attack makes for an interesting image especially since he’s tipped toward me a little.<\/p>\n

I have three primary nits to pick\u00a0with this second photo (don’t I always…):<\/p>\n