Male Hooded Merganser At Last

I finally managed to get some shots of a Male Hooded Merganser while I was on Vancouver Island. I was tormented by all the great shots posted this winter by many of my fellow Ottawa photographers.

This male was moving in and out of the shadows so even with Fill Flash the exposures kept changing. The whites here are hotter that I'd like but I'm jsut glad that I had a chance to get this close to one of these drakes.

I'm not quite sure how there is catchlight in the reflection of the eye, as his real eyelid seems partially closed in the first photo, but I decided to leave it in.

Bigma handheld. Cropped to about 70 % of full frame.

Beautiful bird and photo Stephen . Thanks for sharing.

Excellent and beautiful captures indeed..BIG congrats Stephen.

Nice, I can never get anywhere near these guys. Love the reflection in your first shot.

Thank you Reigh, Reyno and Liz.

those are friggin awesome Stephen the reflection in the first is to die for ,,, I wish I had somthing this nice in my files

Stunning photo. Thanks for sharing.

A beautiful capture. I really like #1

Sweat! Really nice Stephen. Congrats

They are both excellent shots.. well done!

Fantastic shots of a beautiful duck. I am still waiting for a decent shot of one myself. I can never seem to get close to one.

Shots like these make it worth the wait!

Super shot in the first image. Too bad he wasn't turned just a little to his right to get the full show of light. Nonetheless, very well done!!

You already pointed out the nits Stepehen,,nevertheless two great images with the first getting my vote for that amazing reflection. The green water in the second image is amazing. Nice work!

Wayne, Rubberhead, Photosbymorgan2, Rick, Brandon, Chris, RW2 AAJ and Gary thank you for taking the time to comment. I was able to photograph this bird for almost an hour (in between getting shots of the California Quail, Red-shafted flicker and Audubon's Warbler).

Here's one more shot from that series. Again the whites are hot.