A Duck Walks Into A Bar

There are lots of cool ducks in the coastal waters of New Jersey and New York these days, like this gang of male northern shovelers, Anas clypeata, that I saw at Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge this week. Click to enlarge.

Here are some canvasback ducks, Aythya valisineria,  with a a photo-bombing northern pintail, Anas acuta, star of last week's blog, heading left near the margin. These were at Forsythe last week, but I've been seeing canvasbacks in the Delaware River lately, too.

The ducks above are wild ducks of course, but they reminded me of this story that features their barnyard cousins. 

It's by Garrison Keillor, from Truckstop and Other Lake Wobegon Stories: 

“He takes a kitchen chair and sits in the yard and all the ducks come around. He holds up the cheese curls in one hand and caramel popcorn in the other and his audience looks up and he tells them a joke. He says: So one day a duck come into this bar and ordered a whiskey and a bump and the bartender was pretty surprised, he says, "You know we don't get many of you ducks in here." The duck says, "At these prices I'm not surprised.* And he tosses out the popcorn and they laugh. 'Wak wak wak wak wak. I was shot in the leg in the war.' Have a scar? 'No thanks, I don't smoke.”

And here's a portrait of a handsome male mallard duck,
Anas platyrhynchos.

Northern Shoveler Ducks

Here is a pair of northern shoveler ducks, Anas clypeata. The female is in front and the male behind. Shovelers are famous for their larger-than-duck-average bills, which are flattened on the ends, like shovels. The bill shape and their habit of using them to "shovel" food from the water gives the birds their common name. 

You often see them as in this picture, with their bills barely submerged. They sweep their heads from side to side to filter food from the water, finding algae and plant material, aquatic insects, crustaceans, and more. Click to enlarge. 

Shoveling. Makes it look easy, doesn't he?

Shovelers also sometimes up-end like this in a move called dabbling.  It distinguishes them and the rest of the surface feeding or dabbling ducks from ducks that dive underwater to feed. 

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." 

Dabbling Ducks

A few pairs of dabbling ducks. Dabblers do not dive to feed. Instead, they tip over at the water surface with their heads underwater and their tails in the air.

Blue-winged teal, Anas discors. The male has a distinctive white crescent on the face. Click to enlarge. 

Northern shoveler ducks, Anas clypeata, famous for the large bill. The colorful male is on the right and behind the relatively drab but equally big-beaked female. 

The familiar mallard duck, Anas platyrhynchos. The green-headed male has a clear yellow bill. 

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