But late in the afternoon the sun really did come out so I couldn’t resist rolling the dice to see if I’d get lucky with birds. I struck out at my first three birding spots but just a few minutes before sunset at my fourth bird stop I hit a home run with a drake Hooded Merganser. I call it a home run because I believe he was only the 4th Hoodie I’ve ever photographed and for the first time with this species he actually came out of the water and posed for me.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/hooded-merganser-8376b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"hooded-merganser-8376b-ron-dudley\\"")
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1\/800, f\/7.1, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n He spent most of his time in the water and I’ll post some of those shots at a later time. Since I took several hundred photos of him late in the day I haven’t had time to review them all so today I’ll only post three shots, two of them taken while he was out of the water. This is one of my favorites because we get such a good look at a species that is usually partially hidden by water and I caught him with his crest is fully erected.<\/p>\n I certainly didn’t expect him to come out of the water and onto the grass so I was pretty excited when he posed nicely for me on the grass and in soft, warm light just before sunset. Hooded Mergansers are the smallest of the three North American merganser species (only 1.4 lb compared to 3.4 lb for the Common Merganser) and I usually can’t get close to them so it was fun to get many frame-filling shots of this spiffy little dude.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 400mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/i><\/p>\n He even relaxed enough to sit down on the grass and rest for a while.<\/p>\n These photos may suggest that this guy was somehow a tame bird but that’s far from the truth. He was a wild and skittish duck, especially when he was in the water.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Several times while he was swimming something panicked him (I could never tell what it was) and he exploded off the water. Once he circled around overhead but eventually he returned. I was only lucky to keep him in frame in this shot where he was running away from something that spooked him instead of actually taking off like he had earlier.<\/p>\n You’ll likely see more of this dandy little duck sometime soon. After such a frustrating week I was pretty stoked to find him, especially in such a cooperative mood.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday was a day of highs and lows but thankfully it ended on a “Hoodie high”.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/hooded-merganser-6880-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"hooded-merganser-6880-ron-dudley\\"")
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