photoartflightCommon Merganser Swim-By Panorama
Finally it is starting to get warmer here in the Northeast, and the local Wildlife Refuge is coming back to life. With the extremely cold weather in the Northeast, the lake had a very thick layer of ice over the Winter. This is the first year that I saw hundreds of dead sunfish and really large dead carp frozen in the water along the shorelines. The refuge years ago was a Celery Farm and after that they raised carp here. So to see hundreds of dead fish was stunning to see. As the ice started melting they attracted large flocks of Turkey Vultures and Gulls scavenging the fish out of the ice. There are a variety of ducks coming back and on this post I am showing some of the Common Mergansers. One of my favorite ducks just because they are pretty cool looking. They are diving ducks, so they are fun to watch feeding. These photos are 2 shot panoramas combined in Photoshop. I used a Canon EOS 1D MkIV with a Canon 400mm f/4 w/ a Canon 1.4X Series III teleconverter giving me a focal length w/crop factor, 35mm equivalent of 728mm.
Fantastic photos!
Thanks! They are fun to watch diving for food. Very active Ducks!