30 | December | 2013 | Texas Tweeties by Bob Zeller

I am finishing up the year of 2013 with a few miscellaneous photos from the past weekend. We hadn’t seen any of the merganzer species in several months. Of course, we wouldn’t see them during the summer anyway, but it is later than usual, what with it being just a couple of days away from the New Year Holiday.

Yesterday we ventured out to our usual haunts at the Middle Concho and Spring Creek parks. Actually we have been seeing several birds lately, but what surprised us yesterday was that as I was taking a long look at a bunch of Northern Shovelers, I notice that one of them looked out of place. Upon further review thru my long lens, I realized that it was a Common Merganzer swimming right along with the Shovelers, like he belonged to the family.

Common Merganzer

This morning, Monday, I had a check-up with my doctor, and on the way home we drove along the Concho River. There we saw a couple of Hooded Merganzers. I got out of the car and ventured down along the river bank and managed to get one decent shot.

Hooded Merganzer

Although the Merganzers were the highlight of the weekend, we did see some more of our favorites, the Great Blue Heron. I have a hard time resisting photographing them when the opportunities arise. This one was no exception and I took two while he was just spending time on a tree log.