A recent Birdbrain post indicated that there were about 20 Hooded Mergansers in a small pond outside a Perkins restaurant at the intersection of Conroy-Windermere Road and Apopka Vineland Road in Orlando. So Rich and I stopped there this morning after we dropped his folks off at the airport. There were no Hoodies this morning but I had a fun 15 minutes photographing the other birds that were there.

The morning was clear and sunny, a sharp contrast to the weather forecast and the approaching cold front. A flock of Ring-Billed Gulls was sunning at the edge of the pond. My best shot was this flight shot:

I really liked the detail in the feathers in the shot above, which I fine-tuned a tiny bit with Photoshop Elements Shadows and Highlights. I also cloned out the telephone pole that was in the left side of the frame.

Here’s another shot of the gulls, this one a juxtaposition:

It was mid-morning, and most of the birds were pretty sleepy. This White Duck was no exception:

Next to the duck were a pair of Chinese Geese (I think I identified them correctly). They are not usually found in the Americas, so I am guessing that these guys are escapees from a zoo or something. They were very vocal and clearly used to being fed!

So we didn’t find any Hoodies, but it was worth the stop anyway.