Good bye to daylight savings time

                     Since we changed the clocks last night, I was up early this morning. I looked 

out the window and saw this amazing sunrise!

          I fed the kitties, had a quick breakfast and then headed down to my favorite spot to   

     photograph. I usually do a counterclockwise lap of the lake but today something told 

     me to  do a clockwise loop. I was so glad I did. I came upon a few hooded mergansers.

     A female had a crayfish in her mouth. Very cool!

              I continued on and saw another pair of hooded mergansers having a chat.

     Not much was going on at my favorite spot, so I decided to go up to Prospect park. It's 
  on the way home so I like to stop by once in awhile. Normally I walk out the bike path 
  toward the lakes but today I decided to cross the bridge over the stream and take the 
  other path to the lakes.
    As I was crossing the bridge, I looked down and saw a few mallards. No big deal as mallards are very common around here. But then I did a double take! There was the mandarin duck!

   I was sooooo happy to see him! I had seen him all spring and summer in 2011. But when I looked for him this spring and summer, I never saw him. Of course then I was worried something happened to him. But today I saw he was just fine. He was hanging with the mallards just like last summer. I spent a bit of time getting pics of him......

      Finally I pulled myself away to walk out to the lakes. I knew from past experience that he would tend to stay in the general area. so I felt confident I could see him again when I circled back. It was pretty quiet as I walked around the lake. This cute squirrel insisted I take his pic. Pretty cute!

       And this is a wigeon. They head north in the summer, so they are coming back here 
       to winter.

     I headed back to my mandarin friend, hoping he was still there. And he was! A few other people had discovered him, so we all enjoyed his beauty!

     I probably took over 200 pics of this guy! Thank Dog for digital cameras! Now I have to go through each one and pick out the best ones. Whew! So I put the football game, Clarence curled up with me and we're editing the pic as we cheer on the Giants!

Enjoy!