More Scaup Photos

Today at lunchtime the lesser scaup I saw yesterday was snoozing on the near side of the river, head tucked in on the edge of the ice with a female mallard for company. (The female scaup has blocks of color arranged similarly to those of the male, but with a brown head instead of black and without the bright white of the male's lower body.)

Then I think it became aware of my presence and seemed more bothered by it than the mallards typically do (in fact, they often come toward me in hopes of being fed), so it started to swim away. Despite the almost impenetrable glare of the sunlight on my LCD screen, I managed to capture a couple of pretty decent photos.

Yesterday I hadn't been aware of the yellow eye, which is quite dramatic in the dark head. Also, I didn't mention that the scaups are diving ducks, not dabblers.

This is really a beautiful duck, isn't it?