Scratcher of heads, rubber of bellies
You can find tame mallards in every duck pond in the country so I’m always amused to see how shy they are in the wild. There aren’t many mallards at Ridgefield and they’ve proven to be one of the most challenging ducks for me to photograph. I couldn’t resist a chance to take a portrait of the glorious green head of this drake against the green grasses of the meadow.
It amuses me that a bird that tries so hard not to be seen has a call that can be heard from so far away. The bittern has a distinctive ooomm-ka-chooom call that is one of my favorite sounds of the marsh, it reminds me more of a gurgling swamp than a bird. In this picture it has spread its throat out, sending out its call across the marsh.
📷: Canon 20D | Canon 500mm f/4 | Canon 1.4X
🗓️: May 10, 2009
Boolie 