Finally, some interesting birds in good light. It’s been a while.
1/1600, f/9, ISO 640, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Late yesterday afternoon, thanks in part to a hot tip from my neighbor and good friend Shane Smith, I spent about 40 minutes with four Hooded Mergansers. They were a little nervous so they never came in super close and the lighting was often difficult but I still got some photos I like.
In this shot I was pleased to get all four birds sharp with good light on their faces. With my gear I very rarely have enough depth of field to get that many birds sharp.
1/4000, f/5.6, ISO 640, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
With this species, and with both sexes, I always try to capture their crests (hoods) in as many different shapes as possible. This adult male has his fan-shaped crest fully erected. The crest looks very different in varying stages of display.
It was late in the day yesterday and I took almost 600 photos of these mergansers so I haven’t even had time to look at most of them, much less get them culled or any more of them processed. So you’re likely to see more Hoodie photos down the road.
Ron
Notes:
- Readers have noticed that my posts have had a few hiccups lately. Photoshop still won’t let me add my copyright logo to my photos and the email link for yesterday’s post didn’t work properly for some of my subscribers. Hopefully it’ll work better today.
- As I type this at 5:30 AM it’s 12°F. outside (our coldest so far this year) and many of my readers are suffering through much colder temps than that. Please everyone, be careful and be safe. I’m also concerned about our birds and wildlife in weather like this. It’s gotta be extraordinarily difficult for them.
Can’t open from my email but loads from FB just fine – weird. At least 100 Gray Crowned Rose Finches are sucking down the Black Oil sunflower like crazy! :O
So jealous of those finches!
Got your post via Facebook. Link from yahoo.com did not work.
Where there’s a will (and FB) there’s a way.
They look like they should be seen in the British House of Commons.
I dunno. They aren’t showing disrespect for each other or calling each other names… 🙂
Tried all the clickable pathways from email to post and had no problems (Safari on a Mac with the Catalina OS — and yes, I know I’m behind, but 2 weeks ago I was REALLY behind! 😹).
Love these shots and am looking forward to more from your “Afternoon with the Hoodies.” These Hoodies are much more fun than the ones people wear. 😉 The males are so striking, and, after saying that, it’s the females that my eyes are drawn to with that soft, agouti-like coloring (don’t know if feathers can be agouti). I agree with Kathleen too — definite Abbey Road vibes!
“These Hoodies are much more fun than the ones people wear.”
I agree absolutely, Marty. I’m not a fan of human hoodies.
Was able to get in the usual way via my iPhone as well.
Good to know.
The group shot brought to mind the Beatles Abby Road cover LOL! FYI Safari is not able to process your webpage link the last 2 days.
Safari from my iPhone
“The group shot brought to mind the Beatles Abby Road cover”
I love that observation, Kathleen – with Paul in third place, barefoot.
data point if you’re still collecting – email, PC, chrome, needed to go through ‘comment’ instead of ‘read more.’
Thanks, Cheryl.
No issues for me. I use Safari on a Mac and the link on your email works fine. It’s 19 degrees now and a new ice storm is due to start late this morning. We’ve had widespread outages and we lost power for several hours last night. Looking forward to those temps in the 40s starting tomorrow.
Hooded Mergansers are one of my favorite ducks. When fully erected that white crest flashes even at a distance. Stay warm and safe.
Dan, I thank my lucky stars that my power hasn’t gone out. It went out yesterday afternoon in a large part of Murray but thankfully it didn’t affect my neighborhood. So far…
I am glad to say that I had no problems getting here this morning. I love these beautiful birds. Thank you.l
And yes, I worry about your wildlife – and ours as parts of Oz endure heatwaves and other parts flooding. There are fires burning out of control too.
Sorry to hear about your fires especially, EC. Always something…
Hi Ron, I have Firefox and still cannot open the links. I got to this page by Googling “feathered photography” and clicking onto your home page. I am happy I at least got here! Was thinking I’d never be able to see your posts again – very depressing!
All the best to you,
Karen Lee Klug
Thanks, Karen. I hope they get it fixed soon.
Love the Hooded Merganser photos!
I use Google Chrome, & it wouldn’t load until I cut all the gobbley-gook down to’ blog’ then it loaded just fine.
Thanks, Barbara.
Hi Ron. Nice hoodie shots! Also, the link is still an issue this morning and I am on Firefox. Good sleuthing to you.
Thanks, Brett. I hate this kind of sleuthing.
Love those birds. I have. Got to get back to your pond in case they are still around.
I hope they stick around all winter.
Fun and beautiful! Those hoods are amazing whatever their purpose. 🙂 Hat’s off to Shane for the “heads up”……..
No issues loading this morning.
+15 this morning – “heat wave”… 😉 That being said we have a winter storm warning out for tonight.
Joe still improving – WHEW!
Judy, I keep thinking and worrying about Joe. For me, it’s been 24 days since I came down with it and I’m still not completely recovered. And for the first two weeks I was really sick.
Excellent photos Ron. One of my favorite subjects and fortunately at a couple of our lakes here we have many of them. Have always enjoyed the female hair styles. I think the Hooded Mergansers are one of our most attractive water fowl species. Sharp photos.
Thanks, Everett. I rarely see even this many Hooded Mergansers. Usually when I see them, which isn’t all that often, there’s only one or two of them.
It’s a double date!
Looks like it.
Beautiful photos and birds, Ron. Glad you got out.
I quickly searched on Cornell BNA to see if anyone knew why the Hooded Mergansers had hoods. I did not find much more than it is used in courtship displays. I wonder if they also serve other purposes. Does anyone know?
Thanks, Ed. I suspect that at least part of the purpose of the hood is that it serves as what biologists sometimes call a “sexual ornament”.
I loved the shot of the 4 mergansers swimming in a row, and am
looking forward to seeing more when you find time for the culling of all those shots– I’ll bet there will be treasures in that batch ! Again,
I had to open thru the “comments”–same as yesterday— like Susan,
I use Safari browser–maybe she’s right about that ?
Thanks, Kris. I hope this new hiccup isn’t going to become a long-time problem for Safari users.
Happy to see that you got out and about for some fresh new photos, and those Hooded Mergansers are such a photogenic bunch.
With you on your thoughts Ron. Best wishes to all the people, and creatures great and small in getting through those harsh winter conditions.
Thanks, Michael. Our birds especially have more than enough stress on them lately. They don’t need this extreme and extended cold.
So once again, I got here via the “comment” link rather than “read more of this post, which did not work. It opens a new tab and then just hangs there. I wonder if it’s Safari that has the problem?? Who knows!
Well I spoke too soon; now it works just fine.
OK, good!
Damn, it looks like I’ve got some sleuthing to do. Thanks, Sue.
It’s doing the same to me…. Looking at this post through Facebook not my email.
Thanks for the feedback, Diana.