I’m not particularly knowledgeable about birds in general, and even less so about ducks. Until this winter, I could identify only mallards and wood ducks, and I originally thought this was a mallard pair. (I don’t actually see that well either, which may be part of the problem.) Eventually I realized no, these are quite different from mallards and not only that, they behave quite differently. Looking at my photos up close, I realized they have really unusual bills, kinda like — well, shovels. They use them like shovels too.