A Northern Shoveler Churning

Sometimes these handsome ducks, who feed at the Santa Barbara Bird Refuge by plowing through the water with their bills open, take a break from shoveling and rotate in a circle to check things out, churning up the water around them. I painted him with the surprised look they usually seem to have, although he was in no way intimidated and went right back to feeding a few feet from me. They have strikingly iridescent heads, which sometimes look black, and other times intensely colorful.