A friend pointed out recently that I haven’t posted anything in about a month. So here are a few photos from recent outings. In general, I take photos in the yard in the spring and summer and range further in the fall and winter. We have more waterfowl and raptors in the fall and winter, and that is what will be featured in this post.

On December 5, 2020, I found a loon in the Cap Sante Marina Basin and so went home to retrieve my camera. By the time I returned to the marina the loon had vanished but there were a few Hooded mergansers swimming. I obtained the following photos of a male, initially with its hood down, but then raising it as part of its preening activity.

Here you can see that the merganser has raised it’s crest just prior to stretching.

Here the merganser is raising its wings as part of its stretching exercise…

And finally, flapping its wings…

On December 11, I drove my usual birding route to Fir Island. Just north of Fir Island I found this Great egret, a rare bird for this area. In the almost 20 years I’ve lived here I’ve only seen one other. It was just south of Samish Island.

I returned on December 14 to check on the egret, but it was not in the same area where I had previously seen it. However, once on Fir Island I found this young Bald eagle perched on top of a power pole.

I’m still trying to figure out how to get my notification system up and working again. If you sign up for notifications now you will NOT receive notifications until I figure out how to use the notification app.