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A pond that takes about five minutes to walk to from my home is populated throughout the year by Mallards. Around the migration times other ducks or duck-like birds pay a visit. Yesterday I saw a Ring-Necked Duck and two Hooded Mergansers, one male and one female. I was quite amazed at how aggressive the male Hooded Merganser was towards the male Mallards. I managed to get some photos of a few of the exchanges. None of these are as spectacular as the Brown Pelican vs Osprey, small Shark, etc. photos that Mark Smith has posted of late. All were taken with my little Nikon V2 + 30-110mm lens (which has an angle of view similar to a 300mm lens when zoomed to 110mm). These photos have been slightly to moderately cropped. I wish that I could have used a higher shutter speed for a lot of the photos I took, but I don't like going beyond ISO 800 (to 1600) with the V2. (Unfortunately, the V2 does not allow incremental ISO and exposure settings.) I have a longer F-mount lens that I could have attached to the V2 via an FT1 adapter to get tighter compositions - but I felt like staying native, lens-wise.
Anyways, here is the first pair of photos. The Hooded Merganser confronted a Mallard, then chomped on the Mallard's bill.
Several minutes later, the Hooded Merganser went after a Mallard, butting it with its rather pointed beak. Don't worry - the Mallard seemed to swim away seemingly unscathed, if shaken up a bit.
Anyways, here is the first pair of photos. The Hooded Merganser confronted a Mallard, then chomped on the Mallard's bill.
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Several minutes later, the Hooded Merganser went after a Mallard, butting it with its rather pointed beak. Don't worry - the Mallard seemed to swim away seemingly unscathed, if shaken up a bit.
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