Meandering Merganser...

On Sunday, we decided to go out for a ride in the woods again to see what photos I could capture.

My husband said he wanted to take me to see a small lake that he used to go fishing in when he was younger, called Arflin Lake which wasn't too far from where we live.

The road out to the lake was awful! It was actually blacktopped but the frost heaves had made the road extremely bumpy.

I admit, I complained about it. A. Lot.

Then I sorta whined about not seeing one, single live animal or bird to take photos of.

A. Lot.

I begged him to go off onto a non-blacktop road with the chances of seeing more wildlife.

He wouldn't, saying...."Just be patient, we are almost there!".

Can you tell he is the patient one in this couple?

He was right. It was right around the corner.

So we pulled into the parking lot where the public access site was to launch boats. It was kind of a steep hill.

I looked down and was dissapointed. Dang, there were already people there! So much for pictures!

But it was a pretty little lake...

Here is the view coming down to see the lake. See the little couple sitting in their lawn chairs overlooking the lake? They had fishing poles in the water.:

THEY were probably thinking...dang, there's people here!

We said hello, and looked at the little lake.

It was really picturesque.

Just lovely:

The man said that the deepest fishing hole was right by that big rock:

We got to chatting and found out he was retired, and she was going to work another year and retire then too. We were all grandparents. They had property in Florida where we like to visit. We found all kinds of things in common.

They were delightful!

He asked me about my camera and I told them all about my love for nature photography and how I was dissappointed today about not seeing anything to photograph.

Oh, and I did happen to mention my blog...

No sooner had we talked and I saw a duck to my left in the grass!

He was beautiful!

So, up goes the camera and I start clicking away!

A Merganser Duck:

Diving for his dinner!:

Just LOOK at his handsome head feathers, even when wet!:

He kept swimming close to us, as if posing for pictures!:

And of course: fishing for a meal!:

And I kept saying how HANDSOME he was!:

Man, he was HUNGRY!:

His feathers were marvelous!:

Finally!!!

Success!

He caught a minnow!:






Followed by a sip of water.

Whoops, fella..

you forgot to wipe your mouth!:

Of course. I was happy!

And then, all the way home, I had to listen to my husband teasing me about whining about not seeing anything.

Ok Honey, it was worth the ribbing.

Oh, and one more thing.

We saw the BEST after we saw this Merganser.

But THAT will be in another blogpost.

Let's just call this a cliffhanger, shall we?