Cold Mallards

Winter deepens, narrowing streams, closing ponds and wetlands, and forcing the few hardy ducks in our area to scout out shallow streams that move too fast to freeze over completely. Hunger makes the ducks, such as these five mallards, search out the shallow open water where they can dabble the living pond slimes lurking under the ice in the relatively warm waters. As we watched, we wondered if the legs of these three males and two females had turned red from the cold.