First Winter Common Goldeneye Drake Images

First winter Common Goldeneye male at an urban pond – Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f7.1, 1/2500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

Two days ago I spent a lot of time focused on a first winter Common Goldeneye drake as he swam, foraged, and ate at an urban pond close to home. I took so many photos of this young male goldeneye that I had a hard time deciding on which images to share here. Today I picked images of him that simply caught my eye for the colors, reflections, swirly water, behavior and poses.

This image with the swirly white reflections on the water popped on my screen.

1st winter male Common Goldeneye paddling in a pond – Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f7.1, 1/2500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

This photo caught my eye because of the white and blue colors on the water and the nice head turn of the young male goldeneye.

Immature Common Goldeneye drake and his reflection – Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f7.1, 1/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

When I saw this photo on my screen at home I knew I wanted to share it for the head on pose of the goldeneye and the multiple reflections of his white cheek patches. The multicolored reflections on the water were also visually appealing to me and contrasted with the dark and white plumage of the young drake.

First winter Common Goldeneye drake eating a crayfish – Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f7.1, 1/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

The open bill and the crayfish in it were what caught my eyes with this goldeneye image. The young male goldeneye was a great hunter. I lost count of how many crayfish he caught while I photographed him.

Young Common Goldeneye drake swallowing a crayfish – Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f7.1, 1/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

Of all the photos that I took of the first winter Common Goldeneye male this one was my favorite because of his pose, the action of him swallowing the crayfish, the lifted tail, plus the water dribbling from his bill.

He almost seemed to be smiling.

Young male Common Goldeneye with a crayfish in his bill – Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f7.1, 1/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

The red color reflected on the water in some of these images is from a red roof of a nearby building. Sometimes I don’t care for those blood red reflections and other times I don’t mind them at all. In this photo the red reflected off of the water seemed to accentuate the reflection of the dark head of the young male goldeneye along with his white cheek patches and bright yellow eye.

Young Common Goldeneye drake with a crayfish breakfast – Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f7.1, 1/2500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

I caught a catch light in the eye of the immature goldeneye drake in this image plus a catch light in the eye of the crayfish too.

First winter drake Common Goldeneye swimming with a crayfish in his bill – Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f7.1, 1/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

Finally in this last photo that I selected to share today I simply liked the colors reflected on the water from the nearby vegetation and the blue sky and how the tiny water droplets on the back of the young goldeneye seemed to sparkle in the morning sunlight.

All in all I had fun photographing this first winter Common Goldeneye drake. One could say that I thought it was just ducky!

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Common Goldeneye photos plus facts and information about this species.