Cooper's First Day - Two Thumbs Up!

Hooded Merganser

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If you need me, I'll just be over here making myself even more handsome than I already am. Northern Pintail

 

A Tufted Titmouse.

RBG Arboretum 
 

A golden hour Goldeneye. 💛♀️

 

I'm not sure what 'buffle' means as it pertains to the Bufflehead duck but I assume it's something like 'brilliant'.

 

I've seen my fair share of American Coots but this was the first one who went with the fish instead of the all-you-can-eat salad bar.

 

I don't always see eye to eye with the creatures who swing by our backyard but I did with this one. White-tailed Deer.

 

Spent some quality time with this perky little beauty. Horned Grebe (non-breeding)

 

A big boy on the beach. Canvasback.

 

No peeking, kids. 🎄🎁 . . White-tailed Deer

 

Sometimes I wonder if Northern Cardinals wish they were Southern Cardinals.

 

I'm just short for my weight. - Red-bellied Woodpecker.

 

Awkward yet elegant, a Trumpeter Swan cygnet.

 

Never let a few flurries keep you from wetting a line/beak, I always say. Great Blue Heron

 

By now, the Ospreys are back in Florida and wherever else they spend the winter but here's a sequence of one catching a fish then taking off. Amazing how, in the first photo, he's not even looking at his target - that's how confident he is in his fishing ability. This was shot this past September.

 

This sweetheart decided to get out of the rain and relax on our neighbour's front porch loveseat.

 

Pretty decent view out the right window, I imagine.

 

Some girls just have a glow about them. A Northern Cardinal.

 

We heard this Pileated Woodpecker savaging the tree long before we saw him. Luckily, we waited long enough to catch a glimpse of him before a squirrel ruined it for everyone by chasing him away.

 

A Ruby-crowned Kinglet gazing at the top of the canopy where it spends 99% of its life.

 

A two-fisting Muskrat.