Duck, Duck, Goose

The geese are off somewhere, no doubt setting their eggs.  

The ducks are still working on the dating part of the game.   The mergansers are back in the bay.  The drake is breath-taking, and breath-takingly hard to photograph -- in his gorgeous white suit and green headpiece.

The bufflehead ducks are here as well.  There are several of them currently in residence both here in the bay and up on Hawk's Lake, on one of our hiking trails.  We don't usually see them into the summer. These attractive little divers move farther north for the season.

But we can enjoy them while they are here!  Yesterday I was able to catch a picture of both a merganser and a bufflehea duck swimming side by side.  Both are very shy ducks, and when you get close enough to pull out the camera they vamoose, so I was delighted to be able to sneak a photo.

Since I didn't get THAT close, I'm attaching two really good photos, swiped from Google...  that let you see how beautiful these birds truly are.