I had planned to post my observations of winter birding but my narrative grew too long and I felt I didn’t have enough current photos to supplement the narrative, so I gave up on that idea. Instead I’m going to post some of my photos I’ve taken recently of waterfowl at the Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes.

This is a male Barrow’s goldeneye…

At the end of the bird’s preening ritual it usually rises from the water to stretch. It can take a good while to catch this behavior. First you have to find the bird preening, then you have to wait until it completes the ritual, which may take 15-20 minutes or more. Then, if you are lucky and ready with your camera, you can get a photo of the bird stretching. I stood watch for well over an hour and caught two instances, which last only seconds.

Hopefully this is a female Barrow’s goldeneye. The differences between the female goldeneyes (Common and Barrow’s) are somewhat subtle.

On to Hooded mergansers… this male has its crest down…

And here is a male Hooded merganser with its crest raised…

This is a female Hooded merganser which as of late (late January) has been one of a small group that are fairly frequent visitors to the northwest corner of the marina. In this photo the female has her hood fully raised.

In this photo the female has her hood only partially raised. The hood can also be folded back against the top of the head, giving the merganser a completely different look.

Other waterfowl I sometimes find in the marina are Mallards, Common loons and sometimes a Pied-billed grebe.