Posted by Justin Miller on June 16, 2015 at 14:02:40
The shoveler was still around this past weekend at Green Cay. I first spotted it in the large pond in the center of the park, closer to the NE end of the park. It spent quite a bit of time feeding around there - and I noticed the entire time it always seemed to have the left leg canted up much farther than the right, and the tail and left wing feathers always held up in the air. I was happy to see after 20 minutes when it flew - it looked strong enough and normal in flight, as it moved towards the south end of the park and landed again - but even in flight, that left leg stayed much farther up than the right.
Would an injury have prevented it from making its normal migration north at the end of winter, and it's just been sticking around various watery spots in S. Florida since? I've attached a photo - it was very far away so I was shooting at 600mm on an APS-C camera and then cropped further, from a good 400 feet away...but enough that you can see the rear foot and feathers up. I've seen ducks dabbling around with the back feet held up against the body like this, but rarely quite so high, and only the left leg went this far up and stayed there, even when he was using the right to paddle.
