I figured I would go ahead and close out the Davenport Iowa bird shoot.  We’ve done the eagles, the gulls and now presenting..

That’s right, the Mallard Duck.  This guy was enjoying the 50 degree weather in march.  The shot turned out pretty good with the green shimmering nicely in the sun and you can even make out the water droplets on the duck’s feathers.  This was pretty fitting since the Quad Cities’ minor league hockey team is actually named The Mallards.  Here is another one with a different direction to the sun giving a slightly different shimmer pattern.

There were actually a number of them (can’t remember the proper term for a grouping of ducks at the moment).

Believe me, it was extremely tough to get them to all go in the same direction.  You also have a nice mixture of the females included in this shot – clearly they were stiffed when the coloring was handed out.

Follow the jump to see some more shots of the Mallard

Speaking of the females (technically “typing” of females), I really like the following shot because it shows a pretty crisp female offset by the background males.  The shadows also resulted in an interesting blue hue on the male to the left.  The full shot did not show any with blue heads, nor could I verify that condition exists in the guides I have.

A few seconds later I snapped this one.  Unlike the previous one, the female now went out of focus and the three males took center stage.  This shot gives a good range of the head coloring based on the angle to the sun.   I am pretty sure this is where the idea for many of the bridesmaid dresses we have been seeing for awhile.  I was trying to capture the water cresting on the following shot, but it did not capture the effect as I had witnessed it.  It does seem like the ducks were also impressed by the tiny rapid as well.

I was able to get another shot of the water cresting, but again, not as neat as it was in the moment.  Compared to the previous picture, I even like the duck subjects better in this one.

I’ll close with this final shot of the Mallards.  It gives a pretty good perspective of the aerodynamic curvature of their heads from the back.   I am guessing it can even like a rudder when they dive for food.  Note, it did not go unnoticed that the two end ducks had positioned themselves perfectly to roll the middle duck – (drummmmm roollllll) they must need money to buy some more quack (bada boom!).  That was a tad embarrassing, but the timing was too good to let it go.

That officially concludes our bird shooting trip to Davenport Iowa.  I hope you enjoyed at least some of the shots.  By the way, can you tell I am on vacation this week?