I had hoped to get somewhat closer to Ring-necked ducks today but that plan just wasn't going to work. Not for lack of trying. The main obstacle I had today, and one which I could not overcome, no matter what technique I tried, was that there
were no ring-necked ducks on the water. No Common merganser either, but plenty of Hooded merganser. More of them than usual. So, I opted to try again for these merganser. I picked a spot next to a fallen willow. It was a massive trunk completely blocking my view to one side. Another small log was positioned just a few inches into the water which made it ideal to plant my boots against it for support and those boots were hidden behind the log when viewed from the water. I replaced my burlap camo cloth with a nylon item that felt much better ... no fibers of burlap flying all around my face. I also tried a camo poncho for the first time bolstering the effect of the over-cloth. I used a tripod so that I wouldn't have to move the lens into position should something suddenly appear from behind the fallen willow.
I figured that I could detect wavelets before anything might appear and that is exactly what happened. A male and female HM appeared close to shore (and therefore close to me) and despite my shutter slaps the birds were not alarmed, although perhaps you could say they were a little perplexed by that camo lump slumping on shore behind a log.
