On September 19, 2019, I noticed a Pied-billed grebe in the Cap Sante Mariana Basin. Over a period of several years we have had a grebe come and go from the basin and I have obtained some very good photos of the bird(s).

The next morning I again saw waterfowl and returned to the basin with my camera. I found two Hooded mergansers and the birds were very accommodating with regard to letting me approach, observe and photograph them. The birds were fishing and I was able obtain a lot of good photos of the birds with fish in their mouths. I had to depend on amore knowledgable birder for sex identification wince the male merganser ws not in breeding plumage, which would have made the sex identification infinitely easier! So take my sex labels with the proverbial grain of salt!

In the process of photographing their fishing activities I managed to obtain photos of the female preening.

Finally, just as I was leaving, a pair of Killdeer flushed and, more due to luck than skill, I managed to photograph one of them while it was in flight and obtain pretty good focus against a difficult background. You can see a Great Blue heron in the background.