Wood Duck.

Karl, the color, iridescence, and detail are beautiful.

They really are such beautiful drakes with their amazing coat of many colours, Karl! The colours and iridescence are beautifully captured here.

Carol.

As others have said, the colors and detail are wonderful, Karl.

Great colours captured here, Karl, as always.

The duck is of course beautiful and you have captured the iridescence well, especially the blue tail feathers which sometimes get lost in photographs of Wood Ducks.  I do wish the shooting angle was lower if possible.  One thing I try to avoid is to have the bill casting a shadow on the breast.  I usually stop shooting when the sky is high enough for that to happen or wait for the bird's angle to change so that this does not happen.  I wish the reflection wasn't touching the bottom of the frame.

What a beautiful colors!
Mary

Karl, this image has excellent colors and detail. The water color looks like it came from a grindstone, so I guess that's the reason for the name. It makes for great wood duck colors.

Beautiful duck and photo.

E.J. Peiker wrote:The duck is of course beautiful and you have captured the iridescence well, especially the blue tail feathers which sometimes get lost in photographs of Wood Ducks.  I do wish the shooting angle was lower if possible.  One thing I try to avoid is to have the bill casting a shadow on the breast.  I usually stop shooting when the sky is high enough for that to happen or wait for the bird's angle to change so that this does not happen.  I wish the reflection wasn't touching the bottom of the frame.

Thanks for the positive criticism E.J. I try to learn from it as much as I can.
You are right about the time of the day and the rest. Sometimes I have the best approach in my mind but not always in practice.
On the other day I went down to the water level at the foot of the bridge and had some good shots.
I did the same this time but they did not come that way so I went up to the Bridge and shot from there.
I haven't seen them for almost three years up until most recently, so I became opportunistic when it comes to Wood Ducks. When I have a chance, I take a shot. We, around the Lake and adjacent areas, hardly ever have an opportunity to go down to water level. I do as much as I can. You are perfectly right about the timing, but I just couldn't resist. Maybe next time. Thanks a lot.

Superb specimen Karl! Love the colours.

As others have said the blue/purple feathers are often times hard to bring out..They are great in this shot. As far as the angle of the shot goes, like EJ I would prefer lower but when in doubt, shoot and ask questions later, lol !