Sir Galahad

When I wandered down to Pt Defiance the other day and glimpsed a duck with a white head, I assumed it was a Bufflehead that I had been trying for several weeks to get a decent picture of.

The instant I looked through the lens, though, I knew I had found the mate to the Lady of the Lake, even if he was on the Puget Sound, and not a lake.

The best shot I got of this male Hooded Merganser looks remarkably similar to the best shot I got of the female Hooded Merganser a few days ago:

As I stood in the rapidly vanishing daylight trying to get the best possible picture of him, I huge seagull suddenly appeared in the frame

trying to steal the merganser’s fish away. A lesser duck might have been frightened and dropped his catch in order to get away,

but our noble hero refused to drop it or to fly away. Instead, he paddled rapidly keeping a constant distance between he and the much larger gull until the gull finally gave up and swam away looking for another soft touch.

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