I was going through photos that I captured earlier in December, before my brief trip to Vienna, and came upon these shots of a Hooded Merganser couple (Lophodytes cucullatus) at a small suburban pond. I observed them for quite a while and noticed that the female was busily diving into the water, while the male spent most of his time grooming himself. As a result, it was tough to capture them both in a single frame. Even when they were together, I had to react quickly, because, as you can see in the second photo, the female would often dive without any advance warning.
I love taking photos of these distinctive-looking ducks—no other ducks in my area look anything like them. With a little luck, I will continue to see them during the upcoming cold winter months and they will undoubtedly be featured again in a blog posting.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Very Nice Mike! They are fun to watch and photograph!
I love these images! You know the hoodies are my favorites. The best one is the last, which seems so intimate. It’s cute how the drake’s crest looks kind of ruffled (“punk”) in one shot–like the duck’s usual style! You must have such infinite patience to get close enough to them, even with your telephoto lens.
Thanks, Nina. As you suspect, I have a lot of patience and am willing to wait around for birds to get in range. In this case, I walked multiple loops around the pond hoping to catch the ducks when they drifted closer to one shore or another.