Northern Shovelers

One of the joys of being a dabbler and aficionado of learning is that you’re constantly surprised by new discoveries. For instance I’ve been photographing Northern Shoveler males like this one for several years now:

male Northern Shoveler

However, it wasn’t until my camera spooked this one and his mate that I realized
what a striking wing pattern they had in flight:

Northern Shovelers In Flight

Heck, I never realized until I started to type this up that the female had any color on her wings at all.

4 thoughts on “Northern Shovelers”

  1. I’m not sure, but I suspect it’s because they have a “shovel-shaped” beak and they are constantly turned upside down eating weeds on the bottom of the pond.

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