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.