Five Northern Shovelers Swimming
Five female Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata) showed up at a salt marsh yesterday and spent the day swimming up and down the main water channel. They are among the first ducks to arrive in the fall and the last to leave in the spring. They are conspicuous by their large shovel-like bill which they use to strain water through comblike teeth along the sides of its wide bill to feed on minute aquatic animals.
American Black Duck and ducklings photographed in the spring.
Mother duck and her 9 ducklings swimming in the back channel of a salt marsh.
A couple of Mallard Ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) were swimming back and forth in a pool of water between mudflats in a salt marsh. They would swim right up to the marsh grass on one mudflat then turn around and swim back to the other mudflat and then turn around and repeat the round trip.
Cold Ducks
A Mallard duck stands in the backwater of salt marsh.