Hooded Mergansers. We had a great birding afternoon at Copperas Landing. We followed the dike road from Banner, and saw some wonderful birds. A pair of Pileated Woodpeckers flew over the road as we drove out to the landing. Three or four Great Blue Herons were feeding along the banks of the Illinois. A flock of several dozen Dark-eyed Juncos were feeding at the landing. And many dozens of Wood Ducks were seen flying out of the creek bed as we drove on the road along Copperas Creek on our way back from the landing. But the highlight of our visit occured when I stopped to photograph a pair of what I thought were Wood Ducks. When we got home and I enlarged the photographs I could see that they were Hooded Mergansers, a species I've never spotted before. It isn't a great photo, but it is a photo of Hooded Mergansers!
J G Ward