Swimming In the Colors

[Ziggy]

[Shadowman]

Very nice.

[Wavelength]

I love this...don't know why the bird looks like a sculpture...has it a blue feather?

[bnnrcn]

Nice image Jim I wonder about the blue feather too. It also has a reflection on the water.

[Geoff F]

A lot of duck species have some form of colour flash in that area. It makes them easier to identify; although there is probably a better reason than that for the coloured patch.

This scene is working well.

[ktuli]

I'm pretty sure this is a duck decoy...

I can say that because a few weeks, I sort of got tricked by the same thing! My wife and I went to Presque Isle State Park in Erie, PA. As we were driving in - specifically for birding photography - she saw a bunch of ducks right off shore. I found a parking lot not too far past where we saw the ducks, and we got out and walked back, only to find that there was a pair of hunters sitting in a blind there with about 40-50 decoys out in the water. They fooled us enough from the car, but as we got closer it became very apparent that they were plastic.

This appears to be a mallard female decoy with that blue patch on the end of the wing. And the hunters' technique of using decoys to draw in ducks is one I might have to consider employing in the future to get more ducks to come in.

Still a cool photo with the colors in reflected in the ripples.

- Bill

[BrianA61]

Hey, I've got a BUNCH of those "ducks". I take them out for a swim every time I go out to the blind. Sometimes they fool their live counterparts. Sometimes, not. Sometimes they even fool a few photographers.

BTW, for those that didn't know, that is hen mallard decoy.

[Wavelength]

are they flightless ?

[IzzieK]

I suspect it is a decoy too because it looks plasticky...

[Dave Humphries]

I think Jim knows what he shot

[Ziggy]

Thanks all. Knew it was a decoy but could not resist the water.