![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ruddy-duck-4007c-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"ruddy-duck-4007c-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nFor me the colors and varying textures of the water in this photo are almost as interesting as the birds.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/6400, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I photographed this pair of Ruddy Ducks three days ago at Bear River MBR. The male on the right hasn’t yet developed his signature sky-blue bill but I see the bills of some males already beginning to turn and these birds have just a hint of blue on theirs.<\/p>\n For me the colors and varying textures of the water in this photo are almost as interesting as the birds. If I didn’t know better I might wonder if they were swimming in a narrow channel of open water surrounded by ice above and below, but that’s not the case – it’s all liquid water. The morning was foggy and deathly still so the water was about as undisturbed and mirror-like as I’ve seen. The water reflected the white from the fog behind and above the ducks, turning most of it into a featureless light grayish-blue and almost perfectly flat surface.<\/p>\n And through that featureless void swam the small group of ducks, disturbing the water around them into a much darker blue and ripply surface. There were more Ruddy Ducks in front of these two, swimming in the same direction, and it was those birds that initially created the disturbance on the water. I’ve deliberately cropped the photo to include the teeny tiny tail-tip of one of the leading ducks at the left edge of the frame as evidence of the source of the disturbance but you have to look carefully to see it.<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, that’s what caught my eye about the photo. Your perception may be different.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note:<\/p>\n In his 1926 book “A Natural History of Ducks” J. C. Phillips said of the Ruddy Duck:<\/p>\n \u201cIts intimate habits, its stupidity, its curious nesting customs and ludicrous courtship performance place it in a niche by itself. Even its eggs are unique in appearance and are deposited in a slip-shod, irregular manner that is most extraordinary. Everything about this bird is interesting to the naturalist, but almost nothing about it is interesting to the sportsman.<\/em>“<\/p>\n I’m wondering where the “stupidity” part came from. Anybody know? I can’t help but find it a little offensive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For me the colors and varying textures of the water in this photo are almost as interesting as the birds.<\/p>\n