The Male Mallard

With the warm sunshine finally arriving,the Mallards have returned to their local nesting grounds know that there will always be a plentiful supply of food for their fast growing families.In the meantime it's time to catch some 'Rays' before the courtship chase begins. When I first looked at the shot,I thought it was 'noise' in the shot but it actually the texture of the feathers?

Nikon D3 + Nikon 70-300 @ 270mm, 1/200 sec f6.3 ISO 200