{"id":92121,"date":"2020-12-07T05:46:14","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T12:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=92121"},"modified":"2020-12-07T06:54:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T13:54:33","slug":"female-hooded-merganser-with-a-hammerhead-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/07\/female-hooded-merganser-with-a-hammerhead-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Female Hooded Merganser With A Hammerhead Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plus the only first winter drake Hooded Merganser I’ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

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1\/1250, f\/10, 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

Three days ago I spent some time photographing three Hooded Mergansers in Davis County. This is one of the two adult females in the tight little group. The three of them were so clingy it was often difficult to get isolated shots of any single bird.<\/p>\n

There’s nothing spectacular here, other than I think she’s a subtly beautiful little fish-eating duck. I chose to post this particular photo because of her unusual head reflection that I think resembles the head of a hammerhead shark. Then I look at it again and I see a stylized raptor head. I tend to be drawn to interesting reflections, perhaps more than I should be.<\/p>\n

I was shooting at f\/10 because I’d been trying to photograph multiple mergansers in the same frame so I needed extra depth of field. The timing was fortunate because immediately after this photo was taken the male Northern Shoveler that I posted a landing shot of two days ago<\/a><\/span><\/span> flew in unexpectedly and he was so close I desperately needed that additional depth of field.<\/p>\n

But the most interesting merganser I photographed that morning was the third bird in the group, a first winter drake.<\/p>\n

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For some reason I was having difficulty getting sharp shots of him with my big lens which is part of the reason I switched to my smaller zoom lens for a short series of photos.<\/p>\n

Here the two adult females are in the lead with the first winter drake pulling up the rear. They were side lit but I think the lighting is good enough to clearly see at least two of the significant differences which I’ll point out below.<\/p>\n

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Wouldn’t you know it, I clipped the tail of the trailing immature male in the photo where they had the best light and detail. He’s still in juvenile plumage but he’s beginning to attain some of the distinctive blacks and whites of the adult male on his breast and flanks.<\/p>\n

And he already has the bright yellow iris of the adult male as opposed to the brownish buff or brownish olive iris of the adult females. A few weeks before this shot was taken his eye color would have been similar to that of females of the same age.<\/p>\n

All this is almost certainly more than many of you wanted to know about Hooded Merganser age progression but I was intrigued by this young male the instant I saw him through my lens so I wanted to learn more.<\/p>\n

As I said at the outset he’s the first male Hooded Merganser of this age and in this plumage I’ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n