Yesterday I had a wonderful kayaking experience. Among my “friends” were a couple of active beavers, a single river otter, a bald eagle, and many species of migrating ducks and geese. In this post, I will share a couple of images of one of the colorful ducks that are often seen in Missouri, the Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata). Although there were many pairs of shovelers in the area, I got amazingly close to one drake (male). In this first image, he appeared to be catnapping:
As I approached (I was not trying to get close, but this guy decided to sleep right along the only way out of the area) he raised his head and intently watched me:
As I got close, he decided it was time to relocate to a more secluded spot, and off he went:
(All images shot with Canon 7D body, and 100mm-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens, handheld from a kayak)