The Northern Shoveler is one of my favorite ducks. Mostly, it’s fairly rare around here and easy to identify with that distinctive beak. This is a male in breeding plumage. I love the gold/yellow around the eye.
Northern Shoveler
Views on a Winter Walk
I was out walking in a wooded area and past a small pond. I was quite a ways from the pond … it was sitting in the bottom of a glacial karst (a depression that was left behind when a block of ice was buried and later melted). I saw these two ducks sitting on a log and liked what I could see. After zooming in with a tight crop, I liked the reflections and ripples a lot.
Just down the trail from the pond, I saw these alder (below) and liked the contrast between them and the evergreens in the background.
Halequin Ducks
I was eating lunch on the bridge across the Elwha River, up above the road washout. While munching, I walked to the other side of the bridge and noticed that just below the bridge were two pair of harlequin ducks. I was glad I had brought my big zoom lens.
I balanced the lens on the middle rail of the bridge and took several shots. That let me get the shutter speed down. It was a cloudy day, so I still had to have the lens wide open.
I was afraid that I might startle them and have them fly off. That didn’t happen. Instead they all took naps!
Camera: Nikon D850 Lens: Nikkor 80-400mm set at 400mm ISO 800 1/200 sec f/5.6