Northern Shovelers in the rain
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3OWmt-Ncc5U/TVi7sD9vgFI/AAAAAAAAN5E/lrPc7lgMcfo/s400/Northern%2BShovelers%2Bshoveling.jpg)
Today I had a chance to stop in at Basket Slough National Wildlife Refuge near Dallas, Oregon. It was raining, but the ducks seemed to like that, and it created an excellent opportunity for watching these Shovelers going about their business. To see them in action just copy and paste the following link into your browser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5gimdWIedg
There were also several Northern Pintail ducks nearby, and a big congregation of American Coots in the water, in the shoreline vegetation, and even up on the gravel road picking up something, maybe small pieces of grit to improve their digestion.
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZnjDxzGw1hM/TVi8lXwGTdI/AAAAAAAAN5M/7VPpqflR_L0/s400/Northern%2BPintail.jpg)