The weathermen thought the snowstorm that is now dumping a lot of snow on the Northeast would skirt around us, but they were wrong—I ended up shoveling a couple of inches of the white stuff yesterday evening and this morning. So, I decided to post this photo of a male Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) that I took on New Year’s Day, in honor of all of the shovelers in the north that will be busy today.
I remember well the first time I saw a Northern Shoveler last winter. At first I thought it was a Mallard, but then I got a look at the elongated bill, which still seems cartoonish to me. In this image, I really like the way that you can see the shape of the duck’s bill in the reflection in the water.
Our storm started out with rain and then turned to snow and everything is now frozen solid. With strong gusts of wind and a current temperature of 18 degrees (about minus 8 C), I may stick close to home today, but hope to get some shots of the snow.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
That is an odd duck. I’m glad they’re still finding open water.
I haven’t shoveled yet today, but we have about 5 inches on top of the 3 or so we had yesterday. The big story here will be the expected 20 below zero temps tonight if we see them.
Twenty below? Yikes. I guess I shouldn’t complain about 18 degrees. I have noticed that different people have different approaches to shoveling show–I like to do it several times as the snow is falling, but most of my neighbors seem to wait until the snow had stopped.
Your connection of the two kinds of shovelers made me chuckle…thank you.
Thanks. My humor is a little strange, so I am glad when someone “gets” it.
We’re expected to have high 5 Monday. So, I plan to stay in and look forward to you posts for a short reprieve.
You’ve got only 1 more degree than we do out here in the plains, but I hope you have considerably less wind. It’s pretty nasty, and I’m planning on staying in and looking at photos!
It’s hard to shovel ice, for sure. Maybe you’ll get a thaw to make the ducks happy, but it won’t be pretty if you get a bit of what is hitting the upper Midwest. +18 F sounds warm to me right now.
Yesterday it was 5 degrees F when I headed off to work, the coldest temperatures we’ve had in two decades. Unlike the Midwest, though, we won’t stay at those temperatures and expect the daytime highs to be over the freezing mark soon.