Snail For Breakfast...

[Joseph Przybyla]

Yesterday morning I was at Lake Mirror in Lakeland, Florida. I watched this female Scaup dive time and again. Go down come up, quickly eat something, then down again. Soon I was pretty much able to time when the duck would break the surface and where it would be. So I readied myself focusing on the spot I believed she would surface. Success, she surfaced where I thought and I quickly focused and captured a burst of images. This one showed what she was diving for and eating... Snails. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm
1/2000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 450 AWB
Post processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC 2017
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Alex Becker]

Hi Joseph, Great shot and cool story / fieldcraft behind it. A lot of nice detail here and I like snail of course and also the water drops on the back. I wonder if the whites on the neck could be brought down a bit more perhaps? Thanks for sharing!

[Bill Dix]

Well done, Joe. Often the prey will be swallowed before you have time to react. Timing is everything. Well captured.