Duck photo post!

Female mallard duck.

This weekend we took a walk on the beach. The shores of the “Urner lake” (a part of the big Vierwaldstättersee) are a nature reserve. That’s a very important place for a lot of birds, amphibians and reptilians etc. In winter you can watch a lot of foreign water fowl and that’s always very exciting for me! See a lot of photos under the cut!

Allowedly, my camera isn’t the best so please bear with me if some pictures are a bit blurry. My camera is better for macro shots than taking pictures of animals which are far away. That’s the reason why we fed the ducks with a bit of old bread to lure them closer. But first we saw very special ducks in a pond next the lake. There were shovelers! Look at those long beaks! In German we call these birds “spoon ducks” xD

A pair of "spoon ducks".

Bad light and too much crops :P

I’m sorry for the bad quality. The light wasn’t the best and there was a lot of reed around the pond. But hey, shovelers – YAY!

Who gets the bread? Round one: Fight!

One female mallard duck was very persevering! We fed the ducks by a water mouth so the ducks have to swim toward the current.

There was a male goosander, too.

On this part of the lake, you can watch a lot of gadwalls. I took this photo in 2011.

The real attraction of the winter water fowl: The male northern pintail! Here in companion with a female tufted duck.

He is so handsome!

A real charmer.

That’s the view from a bit further away of the lake. There was no snow anymore, because we got warm wind from the south and the snow melted away. Bleh, seems as if we get a green Christmas this year.

Male mallard duck. Look at those shiny green feathers!

Quak!

Male tufted duck.

Female tufted duck.

It’s possible that you will be a victim of some other duck photos this winter. There is so much to explore on the lake! Each time you can see something different. Often I’m too slow to take pictures of them or I don’t have a camera in held ready. Just recently I saw an egret and this weekend I saw - hold on – a female hen harrier! That’s a rare bird in our area :O I hope I can take cool photos in the future!