This beautiful male mallard popped his head up for a second as he heard me approaching. Then went back to eating zebra mussels on the rocks! These rocks are normally covered by the water of the Rideau Canal, but now that the canal has been partly drained, the rocks are exposed and the mallards (and there were many doing the same thing) are feeding. The zebra mussels are an invasive species and a real problem for aquatic ecosystems, so it was nice to see these ducks making a dent in the population.