We had relatively good weather (mostly morning fog and at least partly sunny afternoons) this past week (1/15-17) and I made the most of the weather and went on excursions all three days.  My main photographic areas were the Cap Sante Marina and March’s Point.

The first significant group of waterfowl I encountered was composed of Hooded mergansers.  In these photos the male has his crest lowered.  The focus on my lens is so critical at F4 that my depth of field is extremely short, but since these waterfowl were both very near to the same distance from the camera they are both in fairly good focus.  That’s a fairly rare occurrence in my photography and I feel fortunate in that I got the opportunity to have both birds in the photo and both in focus.

Male Hooded Merganser

Male and Female Hooded Mergansers

This next photo is of a male Common merganser… in breeding plumage.  It was a beautiful bird but a little farther away than I would have liked.

Finally, I encountered a single Black oystercatcher standing on a rock just off of March’s Point.  The birds are somewhat difficult to photograph due to the black color of their plumage.  You’ll see a photo of what is probably the same bird I photographed the next day while it was gathering a meal.  And yes, it has another leg… it’s just resting it!