During this transitional time of the year there is often a thin coating of ice on the pond, especially when the temperature at night drops into the low 20’s F (-5 C). On Friday morning, the ice was thick enough to support the weight of ducks most of the time, although the Canada Geese kept breaking through the ice when they tried to walk on it.
This female Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) started out strutting confidently across the ice, but stopped for a moment at a place where the water had accumulated. I couldn’t tell if she was assessing the condition of the ice or was merely admiring her reflection—she is quite a beautiful duck after all and perhaps ducks have a sense of vanity.
The male Mallard was more practical, remaining in the area of open water and foraging for food, content to leave the strutting and reflecting to his lady.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I love the photo of the female where her fractured reflection can be seen in the ice.
I don’t know how they stand it. Great shots!
Thanks. Sue of Backyard Biology did a post a while back explaining the physiology of the duck feet, although recently she did a post in which she noted that they can get cold, so they will sometimes stand on a single foot and tuck the other one in for warmth. I’ll see if I can find a link and post it.
Great shots, is the Tamron glass a new lens? 🙂
Yes, it is. This was my first day using it and I hope to get better as I learn to handle this beast.
If you want a cool accessory look at the BushHawk, its like a rifle stock you mount your camera on and is great for long lenses and even macro, I’m getting one in January.. 🙂
I’ll have to check it out. Anything that makes my shooting position more stable is definitely welcome.
Love that middle shot, although it almost looks like that little ducks feet are planted in the ice? Is the surface frozen there?
The surface was soft on Friday when I took that shot and then got a lot more solid on Saturday. There was some water on the surface in part because of the splashing that occurred when the ducks climbed out of the water onto the ice.
I thought that might be the case. Poor little critters. My heart goes out to them in the wintertime.
I’ve been showing the shots with your new lens to my husband who is really impressed. Is it possible to hand hold or is it all tripod work? Perhaps it is too early to grill you. 🙂 Amelia
So far it has been all handheld. I find that it’s tough to use a tripod in most situations with birds, so for now I am working to remember to keep the shutter speed high enough. The lens does have image stabilization built in, which helps too. As I was practicing with the new lens, I tried to take some action shots and some shots in which the birds were stationary, some close-ups and some shots at a distance. I’m pretty happy. The one challenge that will be tough to overcome is when the light is limited. At 600mm, the lens opens up only to f/6.3, which could be problematic.
Great shots –
Personally, I think she was admiring herself!;)
Love the reflections 🙂
Thanks, Marie.