The first time I ever photographed a Northern Pintail I remember thinking to myself, â€?”My God, that’s what Mr. Mallard would look like in a Tux.†It is, quite simply, an ELEGANT duck.
You can imagine my shock, then, when I realized that Pintails feed not in pristine lake waters but in grubby marshy areas.
The first time I saw a Pintail wading in the mud I wanted to yell, â€?”Get out of there, you’re going to ruin your beautiful suit.â€
Turns out that some of the most beautiful ducks spend much of their time wallowing in muddy tide flats. The number of beautiful male Green-Winged Teals
have exploded at Theler Wetlands since they breached the dike.
They run around the wetlands busily â€filtering mud with bill, up-ending, or picking items from water’s surface.â€
