Today I discovered the Red Breasted Merganser
(I found its name after doing some investigating on Google); one
of the many species of winter ducks on the Lagoon. Mergansers look like
mallards from a distance, but through a 300mm lens you
could see that the male merganser is characterized by it's spiky
hair and narrow beak, and the female by its orange eyes and
long narrow brightly colored beak.
(I found its name after doing some investigating on Google); one
of the many species of winter ducks on the Lagoon. Mergansers look like
mallards from a distance, but through a 300mm lens you
could see that the male merganser is characterized by it's spiky
hair and narrow beak, and the female by its orange eyes and
long narrow brightly colored beak.
It was kind of a surprise to see these sort of birds.
The male merganser was perched on a log in
the Lagoon when I approached him. The mallards that were with
him had flown away, and I wondered why the merganser had stayed
and then noticed its hair and realized it would make a phenomenal
photograph because of how close I was to him. Then I made
a mistake which will probably haunt me forever (or at least for a
little while); I tried to climb down towards the water because I
thought a lower angle would work perfectly as a photograph
and the merganser would surely not fly away, and of course he
did fly away and wasn't able to get a quality picture because his
back was to me until the moment he landed in the water
(bottom photo), and he flew to another part of the Lagoon when I tried
to move closer. So I followed the merganser to that other part of the
Lagoon and took a bunch of shots from afar (first photo, as close as I
could get) while he was midst many other ducks, and after waiting for
twenty minutes hoping that he would move closer I lost sight of him in
the crowd of ducks and I decided it was hopeless. Seeing these sort of
birds makes me wonder what other sort of obscure birds are
lurking in the Lagoon.
The male merganser was perched on a log in
the Lagoon when I approached him. The mallards that were with
him had flown away, and I wondered why the merganser had stayed
and then noticed its hair and realized it would make a phenomenal
photograph because of how close I was to him. Then I made
a mistake which will probably haunt me forever (or at least for a
little while); I tried to climb down towards the water because I
thought a lower angle would work perfectly as a photograph
and the merganser would surely not fly away, and of course he
did fly away and wasn't able to get a quality picture because his
back was to me until the moment he landed in the water
(bottom photo), and he flew to another part of the Lagoon when I tried
to move closer. So I followed the merganser to that other part of the
Lagoon and took a bunch of shots from afar (first photo, as close as I
could get) while he was midst many other ducks, and after waiting for
twenty minutes hoping that he would move closer I lost sight of him in
the crowd of ducks and I decided it was hopeless. Seeing these sort of
birds makes me wonder what other sort of obscure birds are
lurking in the Lagoon.
Winnetka
Taken in February 2012
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