During a darkly wet spring rain shower recently, I came across a stunning pair of wood ducks who seemed to be enjoying the raindrops that were plunking into targets around them. The opening of Gene Kelly’s famous song came to my old mind, with a slight variation:
I’m floatin’ in the rain,
Just floatin’ in the rain,
What a glorious feeling,
I’m happy again!
Above, you see the male trying out his spectacular wardrobe, apparently to make sure that it’s waterproof as advertised. The Cleopatra eye makeup on his pretty mate is not smearing at all:
Wild duck feathers are interlocked by barbs and hooks into a tightly-zipped barrier that makes their plumage water-repellant. They then spread oil from a gland near the base of their tails over their feathers to coat them into a virtually (if not completely) waterproof state.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on April 15, 2025.)