Bufflehead

Went to one of the neighborhood ponds to try for better tree swallow-in- flight photos, but the swallows were gone. Yesterday's swallow flock must be migrating further north.

Instead, stealthily approached the pond bank to take pictures of this male bufflehead, a small diving duck. No crawling on the pond bank, mind you, too much goose poop on the ground for that. Did not get as close as I would have liked to the bufflehead, but that's what cropping is for!

Yesterday there were two bufflehead, and today there were six. I don't see bufflehead on these ponds in the winter or summer, so these ducks are just passing through on their way north to their summer home.