Common Merganser

Because most ponds and lakes are frozen, finding freshwater waterfowl in the middle of the winter can be challenging, but when you do find them, you are often rewarded. Around 8 am, I set up a modified Kwik Camo blind so I could lay on my stomach, with the camo over me like a blanket, with just the tip of my lens hood sticking out, resting right on the ice. Just under two hours later, two female Common Mergansers landed on the open water near where I was laying on the ice. They dove for fish repeatedly, a mere ten feet from where I was laying on the ice. I had the pleasure of photographing them for over an hour, before they moved on.

Olmstead Park - Leverett Pond
Boston, Massachusetts

February 7, 2010