Doing the Duck-Walk

I went out for a quick look for waterfowl at a nearby wildlife management area (WMA) and was very pleased to find several pairs of Common Mergansers cruising around an open patch of water.  Spooky things, so one has to do a lot of creeping and slithering to get anything approaching a decent shot.  I confess that I fell short in the "decent" department, but I got a passable shot of one of the pairs and this rather funny shot of one of the females running across the water in preparation for takeoff.  I will put the pair shot in Extra.  

Common Mergansers breed primarily in Canada,Alaska and the PNW; however, there is a small year-round population in our area so they can occasionally be found in the summer.  Earlier in the winter, males gather on lakes and rivers in large flocks; but by this time of year they've mostly split up into breeding pairs.  

We took MIL to the doctor for an endoscopy this morning.  Although this is a pretty low-risk procedure, it does require sedation which always has some risk involved with someone her age.  Happy to say that the procedure went well and we will get results in about 2 weeks of some tissue that was sent out for pathology.  While conscious, she didn't miss a single opportunity to flirt with every man in the place, starting in the waiting room and concluding with the anesthesiologist just before he put her out.  That's my girl!

Today the temps soared to a balmy 50 F which felt pretty darned good.  Tomorrow, unfortunately, the high will be only in the high 20's.  Hubs dug a path to our firewood so I predict a roaring fire tomorrow.  Have I mentioned lately that I'm ready for spring?

Next week's blip will be coming to you from Arizona... can't wait!

xo
Debbi

Breaking News!!  I just learned that one of my bluebird photos made the cover of Cornell's NestWatch Digest publication!!  Totally chuffed!!