No duck is as maligned as the shoveler, easily identified by the spoon-like bill that subjects it to so much ridicule. Many refer to them derisively as bottom feeders, and while it’s true they feed on animal matter more than any of our other puddle ducks… really? I think they are beautiful!
Northern Pintails dabble on the surface of the water and filter out seeds and insects with their bills. They also waddle at the edges of wetlands and through agricultural fields feeding on grain and insects. They form large groups and readily associate with other ducks during the nonbreeding season.
Hunted nearly to extinction these beautiful ducks are making a comeback here in Ontario. Distinctively North American, they are not found anywhere other than the wetland forests of eastern North America.
Famous last words “there won’t be anything in this pond” bird number 157 was in this pond!
Yep, I got close enough to this Gadwall to get a good photo … a new one for me!
Spring migration is well under way … I don’t even know how many varieties of ducks there were at the Leslie Street Spit, my lens was too short!
Redheads are the ones with brown heads. The Bufflehead (male) is the little guy at front and centre, I think there is a female Goldeneye in the bottom right. Gadwall is top left.
Easy Spring on the Beaver River, beautiful! they didn’t ge the message that there is still snow and ice on their nesting grounds … April fools?
I couldn’t believe my eyes, all these ducklings sitting in a row and they didn’t budge as the boat drifted close enough for me to get this photo!
Birds of all kinds were finding comfort in small openings in the frozen water, here we came across a less seen pair of ducks.
