Water wings

It was pretty cold and dreary out when I finished work for the day, so when I drove over to Howell's I wasn't expecting to see all that much. But when I got there, the swallows were already out in droves. We won't even discuss how many images featuring blurry blobs are currently sitting in my desktop trash at the moment, but I did manage to snag a few decent shots. This first one is a barn swallow:



A couple of shots of a tree swallow:





I think this is another tree swallow, but please don't wager any money on it:



A pair of swallows getting tangled up in midair:



Just a shot to try and provide a sense of how crowded it can get over the pond:



A couple of mallards that caught my eye as they swam along the far shore:



A kingfisher flying across the pond:



This one perched in a tree I happened to be standing near; I just wish the light had been a bit better:



As I strolled toward the other end of the pond, I discovered that a male common merganser was once again on the log under dispute on Monday, with a female hooded merganser sitting nearby:



Given what happened next, I like to think these were the birds I saw on Monday—after all, you know what they say about payback:





When I checked back later on, she had the log all to herself. As I took pictures, I was lucky enough to get a few of her with her crest expanded:



And with the crest lying relatively flat:



Finally, another one of those happy accident shots; in this case, it was a result of the camera focus shifting as I panned to follow some swallows flying across in front of me: