Red-breasted Merganser on a snowy, windy day, Salt Lake County, UtahRed-breasted Merganser on a snowy, windy day – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/640, ISO 1000, +1.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

We did have a big snowfall event yesterday and I had to scrape the snow off of my Jeep twice. The roads were treacherous and UHP reported more than 230 crashes in this area of Utah because of the snow and dicey roads. I only needed to turn on my 4×4 once to get around a stalled or stuck Chevy pickup on my way home from the grocery store. I didn’t want to be out on the interstate with the crazy drivers so I went out to photograph birds close to home.

Early in the morning when the snow was blowing there weren’t any birds close enough to photograph so I tried again later in the day. Among the other geese, ducks, grebes and coots I saw a single Red-breasted Merganser and several Common Mergansers in low light, windy conditions and took several images of the mergansers that were closest to me. The water on the pond was choppy because of the wind and the light was awful because of the heavy cloud cover.

At first I thought the single Red-breasted Merganser was a female until I noticed the white patches of feathers behind its neck on its sides and then I realized that the merganser was a male because females do not typically have those white patches. I’m not sure if he is a first winter drake but I do know that males of this species take two years to acquire full breeding plumage so perhaps he is a first winter drake.

This isn’t a great Red-breasted Merganser photo by any means but it does show the weather conditions well and I like the overall mood of the image plus the rough, gray water and the snow-covered ice shelf in the background seemed to make the merganser stand out nicely too. Maybe this merganser will stick around so I can try to get nicer photos of him or perhaps he was just down because of the storm and has already moved on. I do know I will be looking for him later on today.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of  my Red-breasted Merganser photos plus facts and information about this species.