And more mergansers

It seems as though every day I see more Hooded Mergansers at the marsh. Today I counted a group of 17 of what appeared to be juvenile females and males, as from a distance they all looked alike. It is nice to see so many of these birds here. There's a good chance they may winter over here, moving out to the river as soon as the marsh freezes over.

They are very wary birds, so it is difficult to get good shots of them without a telephoto lens. This shot, taken yesterday, shows four of them swimming away from me.