Thursday, October 27, 2011

Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)

I mentioned yesterday the return of one of my favorite ducks, the Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus). Above on the left is the female of the species with the male on the right. Females and young first-winter birds of both genders look very similar so I could be wrong. I was very happy to see a small flock (6) of these birds fairly close inshore yesterday since they have been fishing and flirting much further out since their arrival. However, as can be seen below, they weren't cooperating with the photographer otherwise. All of them were catching up on their sleep and it was a long wait before they perked up and took their heads out of their feathers.
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5 comments:

  1. Paul in Powell RiverOctober 27, 2011 at 8:32 AM

    The 2 on the right are carefully keeping an eye on you though! It's a nice picture, hard to get that many into a single frame.

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  2. Dean LewisOctober 27, 2011 at 11:15 AM

    What beautiful and distinctive markings. Once again it makes me wonder if the uniqueness doesn't serve a vital purpose for each species to simply better recognize each other, thus reinforcing and contributing to the distinctness through reproduction.

    ReplyDelete
  3. s.cOctober 27, 2011 at 2:24 PM

    Really beautiful birdshots. Love them

    ReplyDelete
  4. RedPatOctober 27, 2011 at 4:51 PM

    I love that shot of them all sleeping!

    ReplyDelete
  5. JoJoOctober 28, 2011 at 5:47 AM

    They truly are striking and beautiful birds. Wish we had them on the east coast.

    ReplyDelete

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