It might be my new favorite bird. I don't think I have ever seen Hooded Mergansers up close. Well, I wasn't really that close. They were swimming in the river, and I was in my car parked on the road. With the tele-extender on my camera lens I was able to get some fairly close shots. There must have been about a dozen mergansers within a short stretch of the river. The males are very interesting as they have a vertical fan-shaped white crest which can be raised for display or lowered. They were moving constantly, swimming up and down the river. Sometimes a group of males, a male and female together, or a solitary male just swimming along. I had fun watching one for several minutes as it tried to get a fish that seemed just a little too big in to his mouth. He would flip it up in the air, usually catching it sideways and then trying again.
I think he finally did swallow it whole. I saw the Hooded mergansers several times over the course of a few days. Yesterday, I drove a little farther down the river and also saw some Common Mergansers, but didn't get any pictures. 
You can see more duck photos here, and a few below.

You should have seen the birds scatter as an uninvited guest charged through the bird feeders. I saw the Coopers Hawk out of the corner of my eye as it streaked down to the deck area where we have several bird feeders. It looked like a small plane trying to make a cross-wind landing as it rotated its wings from left to right to check its speed and maneuver to the flock of feeding birds. As it raced across the deck it had turned with its belly facing the windows and wing tips nearly vertical from top to bottom and the tail fanned out twisting left to right. I could clearly see the speckling of the belly and underside of the wings as it zoomed by the windows. Talons outstretched, it shot in to an adjacent Crab Apple tree all the while twisting and rotating to avoid hitting a branch as it reached for a perching sparrow or House Finch. He missed. The birds scattered everywhere. The Coopers Hawk flew up into a large apple tree to survey the situation, head and eyes scanning constantly looking for another target. There wasn't another small bird in sight. Fortunately he sat there for about half and hour and I was able to get some photos, even though it was a bit far for my lens. You can see more Raptors here.

The backyard has been alive with birds this winter. (I hate to think how much I have spent on bird seed.) The regulars have included House Finches, a pair of Cardinals, Nuthatches, Downy Woodpeckers, Hairy Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Juncos, Blue Jays and of course, hundreds of House Sparrows. We had a flock of Red-wing Black Birds show up a few days ago and one Rusty Blackbird. You can see more Backyard Birds here.

Today there was a great presentation put on at the Lime Creek Nature Center by Kay from Saving Our Avian Resources - SOAR, a raptor rehabilitation center in Dedham, IA (http://www.soarraptors.org/). She brought two education birds, an American Kestrel, and a Bald Eagle. It was a blowy wintery day, but the room at the nature center was full with children and adults eager to learn about the raptors and to get a close up view.

I spent a cold morning last weekend by the river watching the ducks and geese in the frigid river. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of Canada Geese, Mallards and I even saw one female Redhead duck. The green heads of the drake Mallards were iridescent in bright morning sun. I had heard the wild turkeys back in the woods early in the morning but couldn't see them, because they normally keep their distance from the road. As I watched from the car the ducks and geese were coming and going every which way. I had hoped that one of the Eagles would fly in to snatch a fish out of the open hole in the river or at least perch in a nearby tree, but I only saw tail feathers as one flew from the nest heading the other direction. The big surprise of the morning was about a dozen turkeys that quietly crept along the river bank just across the river from where I was watching. I carefully raised my camera and snapped several pictures before they disappeared back in the trees and brush. You can click the images below to see a larger image.