Port Orchard on a Quiet Day

Although the sun spent all last Friday ducking behind clouds, it was a little brighter than it was at Theler when I got to Port Orchard. I was greeted by this female Hooded Merganser

female Hooded Merganser

as I walked down the ramp into the marina.

Unfortunately it wasn’t very birdy and the sunshine didn’t last much beyond this first shot. The dominant bird was the over-photographed Grebes I’ve featured lately.

I spent most of my time trying to get better shots of the Male Hooded Mergansers. A few years ago I would have been thrilled by the shots I got, but now that I’ve gotten spoiled, this was the only shot I even kept,

Hooded Merganser with Shrimp

mainly because the shrimp in its beak shows just how small these birds really are. I get so used to seeing the bird through a telephoto lens or blown up on a computer that I forget just how small a Hooded Merganser really is. Plus, I learned that they don’t dine exclusively on small fish.