Ruddy Duck

[EdV]

I found this one sole Ruddy Duck swimming around in a pond along the Jersey shore with many Canvasbacks swimming around him. Unforunately, he remained fairly far out in the pond the entire time I was there. I came back twice (once on foot and once in the car) and each time he was far out in the pond. This was the best shot that I got and it is cropped fairly heavily.

[canonloader]

Nice shot. I've seen that behaviour before here. Saw some Goldeneyes hanging with a bunch of mallards who were all in near shore and the Goldeneyes stayed far out in the river.

[downywp]

Nice one, I love the Ruddy Ducks, they remind me of a cute little puppy dog:)
They are just starting to get their beautiful breeding plummage, spring must be on the way!:)

[EdV]

Thanks for the comments. This was the first Ruddy Duck that I have spotted since taking up bird photography just a couple of months ago. I was concerned that I wasn't going to get any "usable" shots of the Ruddy. As it turned out, there were several that, carefully but fairly heavily cropped, gave me decent (but not great) images like this one. This guy was a having a great time swimming and diving around the middle of the pond.

Again thanks for the comments.