Some absolutely gorgeous ducklings this week as we all need some smiles.
How cute are are the pin feathers on this tiny Maned Duckling, sprouting like a pair of minuscule rudders. Soon the keratin sheath will break apart and the duckling’s tail will look more normal.
Maned Ducks are dabbling ducks that forage mainly on plants and occasionally on insects.
The water looks exquisitely beautiful in the photograph above, almost unbelievably silky.
One of the ducklings had strayed too far away and the mother duck firmly called it back. They are remarkable parents and I often marvel at how brilliantly they manage to keep so many ducklings safe from foxes and other predators. A few years ago I shared photographs of a group of 29 ducklings that were seen again almost a month later without the parents having lost a single one.
Such busy little bundles of feathers.
And when they’d finished in the water they wandered towards me across the grass – such a blissful moment. They were so tiny that people walked by without realising what I was photographing. When this duckling wasn’t stretching itself so tall it was lower than some of the blades of grass. It’s hard to get a sense of how little they were when I’ve used my depth of field settings to isolate them from the foreground and background. The affect of the DOF setting is further enhanced as I was lying flat out on the grass. I think this shot may be my favourite of all of them and the more I look at it the more I think I’d like to have it printed and framed.
Happy birding, Kim
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