I have been photographing Hooded Mergansers for the past ten or more years, almost always at Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. For the past two years I either did not see them, or they were too far away to get decent images. This year they did not disappoint.

Hooded Mergansers is a small bird with visible and beautiful, very noticeable hood or crest, especially on the males. Last week a bunch of them were frolicking openly as high tide began filling the marshes with ocean water, fish, crustaceans, mollusks and other of their preferred foods.