Great Egret and a pair of Ducks

One of the many 'new' missions for next year will be Ducks at the Refuge.  The colors and patterns really catch my interest.  I clearly don't know enough about Ducks, why the colors and patters are the way they are.  I need to know.
One of the other odd things I've noticed, which I can only describe as odd is the head position against the body when the head is turned.  Doesn't look right.  In many paintings or other illustrations I've see this but I assumed the oddity was a limitation of the artist.  How wrong I was.
And the Great Egret.  Well, it's white.  Yellow eye.  Orange-yellowish beak.  Black legs.  Sure in it's own way it is an interesting bird.  I'll see them next year too.

ISO 400, f/8, 1/800 sec, 350 mm

This was a fun image for me.  On all my visits to the refuge, I never really saw two different species that close together.  I'm not sure of the territorial interests of the birds, may I just never noticed it.  So right off the start, I liked this one.  The camera was a bit 'fooled' by the light off the water, the original image is quite dark.  I'm not happy with the water properties.  I rarely shot with a polarizer on my visits.  Usually the sky was crappy enough on those days so the water wasn't a concern.  Clearly on this day a polarizer might have helped.
In the upper right hand corner, there was a water plant of some sort that was a bit distracting.  I removed with the new content aware tool in PS.  That is an awesome upgrade added feature.