This brown dabbling duck goes by the name Pacific Black Duck. I don't have a pond with clear water and soft light, so used the foreground and background flowers to frame it. Two things about the flowers I don't like, the stalk in the lower left I don't have the skills to remove without obvious artifacts, and that it is an invasive weed.
Cairns, 420mm, 1/2500, f5.6, ISO1000.
Hello Greg, I think you made lemonade from those lemons... Lovely details on the head and I also like how some of the vegetation is in focus in front of the duck.
I love the low angle intimate view. You did well to go for that perspective. I agree bout the oof stem in LLC, as well as the one touching the duck's head, but I am OK with everything else. A combination patch tool/content aware/low-opacity cloning, and perhaps even some burning (in no particular order) should be a good start to get those gone, but yes, practice makes perfect for a bit more high-level work as this.