a melee of ducks (and duck-like birds

Wow - great seeing the close up picture of the hooded merganser. Today I visited a pond where two

weeks ago we saw thousands of mallards, N. pintails, Common Goldeneyes, Canada Geese -- and

a few special treasures - Bufflehead pair, two pairs of Harlequin ducks, and two pairs of hooded mergansers.-- which were hard to spot in the parades of all the rest. Beautiful irridescent green heads, smartly dressed pintails and dashing goldeneyes made for quite a sight with their reflections, patterns where ice intruded on the pond and then turned pink with reflections from alpenglow on distant mountains. The hoots, honks, whistles, grunts and quacks added to the painting. Just as the light faded off the  mountains a bald eagle flew overhead twinned in the ice. Wow - I was amazed that the numbers were about the same as two weeks ago.

Just as we were watching a few hundered birds flew off. Hard to tell if they were all the same or different sorts. They are holding here waiting to go north. After all the warm unseasonable weather we've had they may think spring is early - Ha! This is the Rocky Mountains. Anything can happen.