A medium-sized duck, the Northern Shoveler stands out in the shallow wetlands with its brilliant green, white, black, and mahogany-brown colors and long black bill.
Usually the long bill is slightly submerged in the water, as the duck filters food like seeds and crustaceans out of the water.
While Northern Shovelers breed in northern areas of North America, Asia, and Europe as well as far south as the Great Lakes, they’re not commonly seen in Michigan.
I haven’t seen them in southeast Michigan until winter.
Which was why I was excited during the holidays to see my first Northern Shovelers of the winter season at a nearby birding site, swimming near shore.
A couple days later, after a deep freeze, the birds were gone.
The shallow waters were frozen where I first saw the birds, as well as the lake the shallow wetlands drain into.
