I’m cleaning up photos from before the holidays and working on posts that were postponed. I hope followers and casual readers are having healthy and happy holidays!
American Black Ducks use the same landing technique whether the water is open or frozen. I photographed some Black Ducks landing on a frozen-over panne and noticed that they do not use any special tricks for ice landings. (A panne is a shallow pool of water in a salt marsh.) They still use their feet as landing gear and brake, followed by a “butt brake”. I guess the latter is more important on ice though. The wings are just providing drag once the duck has slowed for touchdown. (The blue underside of the wing is an artifact from the blue ice. It is actually white!)
Here are some more landings, including a duet. The ducks and geese already preening and snoozing on the ice pay no attention to the traffic.
Birds in My Viewfinder 