Fine feathers of a female Mallard

She's beautiful, even if she is "just" an everyday female Mallard. I never get tired of photographing Mallards, or seeing photos taken by other photographers. This photo was taken at a wetland in SW Calgary yesterday, 10 April 2016, when I called in for just a very quick visit. The weather forecast had been for mainly sunny, but the day turned out to be mainly cloudy with a bit of sun. That made me cancel my plans to do a longer drive somewhere, which left me longing to get out with my camera. So, Mrs. Mallard it is : ) The temperature this morning is -2C, but supposed to soar to 17C this afternoon. A few days ago, it got up to 23C! Crazy for early spring.

"If someone at a park is feeding bread to ducks, chances are there are Mallards in the fray. Perhaps the most familiar of all ducks, Mallards occur throughout North America and Eurasia in ponds and parks as well as wilder wetlands and estuaries. The male’s gleaming green head, gray flanks, and black tail-curl arguably make it the most easily identified duck. Mallards have long been hunted for the table, and almost all domestic ducks come from this species." From AllAboutBirds.

Occasionally, Mallards have been known to show up in people’s swimming pools. My good friend, Art (Leapfrog), has had up to around 45 (?) on his pool at any given time. His pool is covered, with water filling the cover. One special pair, Daisy and Donald, have been coming to his backyard pool for 11 or 12 years and arrived back again just in the last day or two, to Art's delight.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mallard/id

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallard