Lady Pintail shows off her wing.

For most of the past week a very accomodating Long-Tailed Duck (a relative rarity, especially good photo-op-wise) frequented a local urban pond. Of course when I could finally manage to go out, the duck was gone...at least a few fellow photogs got it pretty darn good!

Anyhow, I did get a bonus Northern Pintail, a species I had nothing worthwhile of in my files. Although not rare here during migration, they almost never afford any good opportunities. Maybe not a fully dressed male, but this female did choose a good perch (which I improved by digitally cleaning it from goose poop), and performed nicely before a point-and-shooter overzealously approached and flushed her away - with me in plain view obviously working her. Thank goodness I was in a good mood :)

Canon 40D + 100-400L @330mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/1600s., f/6.3, ISO 400, +0.3 EC, natural light, handheld, just about full-frame.

Very nice Daniel, great light and excellent pose, focus, and bg.

Very nice - the pose, background, colors and sharpness are great.

If I had to change anything I might suggest trying a slightly lower angle.

Awesome shot Daniel wih every thing spot on
TFS

I like the pose and IQ Daniel. Super detail and well exposed.
Just not sure about the double catch light?

Its always great to capture them stretching. Nice and sharp, and love the light quality in this.

Very nice pose, nice BG too. Love all those details. It's not easy to take an appealing photo of a perched duck but you did very well here.

Great shot Dan - It was great shooting with you on Sunday
Fantastic pose and sharpness. BG is superb too.
I might be tempted to remove the second catchlight from the water reflection.

Lovely one Sir, loved the light and pose, sure a lower angle would have added punch, still loved this.. congrats..

Hey guys thanks. I had started a little lower, before this gal gave me a stretch, but quickly noticed the head was merging with the brown water above...with the brown/blue transition cutting across the head. Not good, so I got up a bit more to clear this problem. Better :-)

This is indeed very nice Daniel.
Pose BG and even the rock is excellent.

Beautiful shot with a lovely background.