The unexpected duck

I was taking pictures of Niagara Falls a couple weeks ago---the falls had a portion that froze over, which I wanted to capture. After I was going through the images, one came up with a splotch on it. It is a brand new 30D, and I thought it might be a dirty sensor, which I'd read is quite common. I zoomed in and, low and behold, here is this mallard. It must have been floating toward the brink and then took off in flight at the last moment. I am just guessing, because I didn't see it during the actual shot, as I was focusing and then recomposing. It is funny, I've seen ducks one other time near the brink, in a small eddy---never have I seen one like this, and I didn't even know it was in the frame until the picture was downloaded!

It was very small in the actual image and suffers quite a bit from the enlargement. The original image below is a blown-out shot, but thankfully the duck came out not too bad.

Image taken with Canon 30D & 200mm F2.8L.

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Ducks know how to have fun.

Wow great quility

That is very cool. Love the frozen water of the falls.

Very awesome shot. Love the water and the duck is a nice bonus!

Thanks for the nice complements, all.

It is funny---I took about twenty shots that day and didn't think I got the shot I was trying for (of the falls.) This one, the one that I thought was a dirty sensor and ruined, is the one that worked best, as the cropped duck picture. Unfortunately, the size you see is the largest I could go before the shot seriously deteriorated.