A pair of young Hooded Mergansers have been frequenting a local pond of late, and they are rather tame compared to what we are used to with this species (I've rarely come within 50 yards of one). This individual had been sleeping for a few minutes, so when it woke up and began to preen I knew it was going to stretch a wing or two. It did not disapoint and stretched the near wing for me. In a perfect world the head would be angled a bit more towards me (to match the body angle), but since I was within 50 yards of it I wasn't going to complain...at least not too much! Next time I will hope for an adult male doing the same pose!!
Canon 7D + 100-400L @400mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1600s., f/7.1, ISO 400 (settings histogram checked), natural light, handheld, about 80% FF (cropped top, right, and bottom), lots of specular highlights eliminated along the edge of perch and water...I guess lots more could go too!







. In a perfect world the head would be angled a bit more towards me (to match the body angle), but since I was within 50 yards of it I wasn't going to complain...at least not too much! Next time I will hope for an adult male doing the same pose!!
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