A Merganser Passes By

 As I was taking pictures of the Calumet, I saw this gal taking off.

I had to act quickly to get a picture of her.  It is a female common merganser.  I'll have to say, it is a pretty cool looking bird.

A Pair of Mallard Pictures

One of the nice things about boatwatching is that it gives you an opportunity to get pictures of other things.

 Namely some of the creatures that live on or near the water, like mallards.  The mallard is a pretty cool looking duck in my books, especially if the light is hitting his head just right.  Sometimes, they will look green, in this case blue.

A side shot of the mallard.

A Pair of Mergansers Fly By

One of the things about boatwatching is that there is some time between boats.  In some cases, there is some time as you wait for a boat.  This was a case of the latter.  I was waiting for my first boat of the day, and these guys passed by.

I think this was a male and female pair of common mergansers.

A Pair of Mergansers

While I was waiting for the ship, I saw these mergansers.

 This is a female red breasted merganser.

 The male.

 Another shot of the male.

 He was really showing off for me.

One more shot of the female.  she was a little harder to get pictures of.

A Cormorant Passes By

I like to be near the water and you would think that seagulls would be my happy place bird, since they are often by the water.  Generally there are too many of them but I do like their looks.

 My happy place bird is a cormorant.  I think it is neat the way that they skim over the water as they fly.

And they are generally a pretty neat looking bird.

A Creature Most Fowl

I caught this guy as I was waiting for the next ship.

Not sure what it is though.

And a Loon

And then I saw another fowl creature.

 As I was taking pictures of the Alpena, I saw this loon.

 Kind of a neat looking bird.

 I've seen them before but I don't think I've ever got any pictures of one.

 Well, that changes now.

And one more for good measure.