John Deere Marsh, Dubuque, Iowa --------
Another image from my trip along the Mississippi last weekend. The prominent field mark of the Ring-necked Duck is the white ring on its bill, that makes it easy to identify them. The faint chestnut ring around their necks is very hard to see and mostly visible only at a close distance. I always wonder who gave those ducks their name…😉? The turbulent water on the left is what’s left of one of the females I had in the viewfinder as well. It just dived down in search for food while I pressed the shutter button of the camera. That’s alright, the two males were part of a team of about 20-30 ducks who used the pond at the Deere Marsh as a place for rest and feeding during their migration to Minnesota or Canada up north.
As much as I like this spot for bird watching, for photography it is not ideal. The road to the west and trail to the south are quite a bit higher than the water surface and that gives you always that unfortunate shooting angle from above, which I believe is not very flattering. Don’t even think of getting out of the car and climb down the embankment, all ducks and geese would have left the state of Iowa by the time you are down at water level… 😊