Ducks

I take a lot of photographs. The ones I now regard as second best are better than the ones I thought were best a year ago, but they sit on my hard drive and nobody sees them, which kind of nullifies one of the purposes of taking them. So, from time to time I think I'll have a little clean out and dump a few on here - just the ones that I kind of like, but have no real use for. And lately I seem to have a lot of spare duck photos. Here are a few of them. The photos are best at full size - just click on the picture. And, like all pictures on here, you're welcome to use them, with acknowledgement, for any non profit purpose.

A common or garden variety mallard. A young female

... and a young male

A New Zealand Scaup swimming past the mallard family

A young male paradise duck

I really like this photo of a New Zealand scaup. I like the inquisitorial eye sussing me out.

A female paradise duck taking out an unnecessary feather

And the same duck making adjustments to her flight feathers

Technical: all photos taken with a Nikon D750 and a Tamron 150-600mm zoom. This is the old G1 of this lens and it has a few vices. But I think I know it well enough now to get round most of them.

Comments

Alden Smith said…

I really like ducks, they are really, really cool little dudes. A duck can:

Sit, swim and dive under water.
Walk and waddle fast on the land.
Sit roosting on the land as if it owns the place.
Fly with impressive skill, including serious formation flying much like a squadron of Spitfires.
Execute perfect touch downs on land or splash with aplomb onto the water with all the flair of a Sunderland flying boat.

Who wouldn't want to be a duck?

THE DUCK

Behold the duck.
It does not cluck.
A cluck it lacks.
It quacks.
It is specially fond
Of a puddle or pond.
When it dines or sups,
It bottoms ups.

Ogden Nash

16 May 2019 at 08:29

Kathryn said…

I love ducks too. These photos are beautiful, as is Alden's description of ducks.

15 September 2019 at 21:10

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