Northern Pintails (Mostly) — On The Wing

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I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have a definite need to look at something soothing, given the events of the past few days. So, today, I’m bringing you a bit of Zen, images of ducks in flight.

The first two images are of flights of ducks that I photographed late one afternoon a few weeks ago. With one exception, the ducks in these two images are Northern Pintails. The males of this species are distinguished by their brown heads and white necks. During breeding season the males grow extremely long tail feathers. Hence, their name. In the first image the duck at top right displays the classic pintail. Another male, at lower left, hasn’t grown his in yet.

The second image shows more Pintails, with one of them displaying a long tail.

There’s an “odd duck” in each of these first two images. Can you spot him? He’s an American Wigeon. In the first image he shows up in the lower portion and is second from the rear. In the second image a Wigeon is present as well, at the bottom of the image and towards the rear. He’s noticeable from his brown neck and shoulders and from the white patch above his wing (visible in the second image).

Here’s a third image, which I made very early one morning a couple of weeks ago, just moments after the sun had risen above the horizon.

In this image there is yet another American Wigeon in with the Northern Pintails, this time at the extreme lower right-hand corner, just beneath one of the Pintails. In this image the sun tints the ducks with a golden hue.

Images made with a Canon R5, Canon RF 100-500mm f4.5 -7.1 IS L zoom lens, M setting (auto ISO). First two images, ISO 1600, f8 @ 1/3200, +2/3 stop exposure compensation. Third image, ISO 1250, f7.1 @ 1/1600, +1 stop exposure compensation.