The backyard isn’t as populated with wildlife during the winter months.  Usually, there are plenty of cardinals, chickadees and wrens.  Since we have had such a large amount of rain this past fall, the pond’s water level has been really healthy, resulting in a greater number of waterfowl.  Here are a few pictures from the past couple of days.

This is the first black-crested night heron we’ve seen.  At first, it was sitting in a tree across from the pond and I thought it was a green heron.  But, it was too big, so I broke out one of the bird books and there it was.  The herons are all really pretty (great blue, green and night), but they eat fish, so I hope they don’t wander off to the fish pond.

I was finally able to get pictures of the hooded mergansers that are our winter residents.  They are a little wary and swim away when I go out to try to get a picture.  They are very proficient fishers, diving down for a minute or so and coming up with some pretty big catches.  Again, gotta hope they don’t discover the fish pond.