Even when not in their prettiest plumage, shovelers are fun to watch.
Tag: northern shoveler
Christmas Summer
Male shovelers transition through several different plumages in a year. According to my Sibley guide, this male’s plumage would typically be on display during the summer, but I took this picture on Christmas day. The males have lovely green heads in their breeding plumage, but in this look resemble the females in many ways.
The Unmistakable Bill
When I was in graduate school and just getting into wildlife photography, I spotted a pair of unfamiliar ducks at the Virginia Tech Duck Pond. They only stayed for a day or two before migrating on, but I was a bit puzzled as to their identification as they didn’t quite match anything in my guide book. I guessed (rightly so) that they were northern shovelers as nothing else in the book had a bill quite like theirs. I later learned that they were in non-breeding plumage, while my guide book only had their breeding plumage.
When we moved to Oregon I was delighted to find shovelers here in the winter, so now I get to see them on a regular basis, and am still amused by the variety of plumages I see within the same group of shovelers. This male for example, even though it was late winter, still has signs of his intermediate plumage. With that bill, though, there’s no mistaking him for anything but a shoveler.
Boolie 