On Christmas Day, after our family Zoom call, we headed down to the South Platte river. Angela had found some rare birds earlier this week and wanted to share with me! Soon after leaving the parking lot on foot, we encountered a couple of Snipe working along the shore.
Most of the time the Snipe had their long bills working on the short, looking for food. After making several images, along came a Kildeer, to join in the search for food. I like the pose of this bird as it stretched out.
Soon the Kildeer joined the Snipe. However, the Snipe had that long bill under water.
After waiting patiently, the Kildeer moved off but a pair of Mallards were working along the river. At this point, I had managed to make this image with the long bill out of the water!
The Snipe had stopped to scratch an itch, in this image.
We move further along the river. By this time, it had branched off into Plum Creek. Here, many ducks were working the pond.
I had seen Northern Shovelers in the water before, usually dipping their heads and that long shovel bill below the water. However, this time this Shoveler had its bill laid out flat along the water.
That was the first time that I observed this feeding behavior. Looking carefully at the build, one can see what looks like a filter along the sides of the bill. This appears to be used to trap food floating on the surface as the duck paddled forward.
At first, it appeared that this was a female. However, there is a slight hint of green in the head behind the eyes, so most probably, he was an immature male.
This bird actually allowed me to approach quite close. Or rather, it swam close to where I was standing. The closest I ever got to a Shoveler. Usually, they are very skittish and move away quickly.