Last Week of Winter

Female (front) and male (rear) northern shoveler ducks, Anas clypeata. They get their common name from the over sized shovel-shaped bills. Click to enlarge. 

Spring arrives this week. Some of the ducks that spend winter in the coastal waters near New York will soon fly off to their summer breeding grounds. The northern shoveler duck is one of my favorites. I photographed these at the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in southern New Jersey.

Duck Jokes:

What do you call a duck with a drug problem? -- Quackhead! 

What happens when a duck flies upside down? -- It quacks up!

When do ducks wake up? -- At the quack of dawn!

A man in a theatre notices a duck sitting next to him. He says, "Hey -- what's a duck doing at the movies? The duck replies, "I thought the book was really good."