Here is the reason for the title: Behind the duck is small drop in the river, creating a mini rapids. The duck is paddling just to stay put and not fall down those rapids, but the strong current is pushing some water against the duck's front...creating the illusion of it swimming forward. No panning needed here :).
Canon 40D + 100-400L @400mm, manual exp, eval metering, 1/160s., f/6.3, ISO 640, natural light, handheld, just about full-frame (cropped slightly bottom and left).
Interesting and thanks for the explanation. Well done as noted above. The bright area above the bird bugs me a bit. I believe that toning it down would be an improvement.
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Great comp, detail, and saturation looks perfect here. I didn't really notice the bright area above the mallard until I read Artie's comment. Lovely portrait.