Mallards are cold-weather ducks. They will remain in the snow and ice as long as food and water are available. In fact, where water is freezing a few individuals keep swimming in a water hole to stir up the water, preventing it from freezing solid. This insures the mallards of a drink when necessary. If there is no danger of freeze-up they prefer to walk out on the ice and snow along the edge to snooze and rest.

In this painting, new arrivals drop into the gathering on their return from feeding in a field of waste grain which could be as far as fifty miles away.

Bits of frost and snow are left on the trees and brush from the morning fog, but the sun, trying to shine through, will soon melt off the frost. The birds welcome the warm rays of the sun as they rest in their well-insulated coats of down and feathers.

- Maynard Reece