I haven’t had the opportunity to photograph Hooded Mergansers as often as I would like.

The Hooded Merganser is a cool bird with an interesting hood of feathers atop its head visible in different ways in both male and female birds.

While out walking along one of the Finger Lakes in New York I spotted a small flock of Hooded Mergansers.

This small flock of Hooded Mergansers swam around near the lake shore for quite a while.

I was probably the longest single stretch of time I have ever had to photograph Hooded Mergansers.

It was fun to see these birds swimming along. Just having time to watch the birds was nice. Usually its just a quick glimpse.