More Birds of Cap Sante

Saturday (St. Patrick's Day) turned out to be not too bad a day for photography so I went back down to the Cap Sante Marina.  I couldn't find any Dunlin in their usual haunts so I drove over to the other side of the marina where I found some waterfowl.  I noticed a Red-breasted merganser coming my way so I stretched out on the sidewalk and waited.  In retrospect I need not have been so careful.  Two of them swam by and then one returned later with me standing.  This was probably my best photo...

 

While chatting with one of the marina employees I noticed a Common loon in the background and took a few photos, but it was farther away than I would have liked.  I've seen as many as three in the marina at one time but haven't seen them as often lately.  I got lost in the conversation and all of a sudden realized that the loon had surfaced only about fifty feet away!  I already had my camera at the ready and was able to snap a couple of quick photos which were close to full frame.  I had hoped that the loon would be in breeding plumage but it appears to be transitioning... note the pattern beginning to appear on its back.  I'll be down at the marina in the coming weeks to try to get a photo of it in breeding plumage.  

Finally, after leaving the marina I decided to drive around March Point.  Birds were relatively scarce there but I did encounter this Turkey vulture, apparently one of the early migratory arrivals.  It was sitting on a stick on the beach.  In Texas this would have been one of the last places you would have expected to see a vulture!  But up here, I take what I can get and am quite happy that it wasn't sitting on a power pole!