I went out to our local greenbelt last night to get one more walk in before the deep freeze hits tonight.

There were about a half-dozen hooded mergansers floating on the water as the sun began to set. Above, an adult female is behind a juvenile male. My husband and I had to read Cornell’s description carefully to learn that juveniles have yellow to olive eyes (front bird), while females have yellowish bills (rear bird).

This male juvenile hooded merganser paddles in water that looks orange due to the reflection of light off an iron bridge just above him.

An adult male hooded merganser paddles among some driftwood.

This is the same greenbelt that had the baby owls last spring. I had to look a little to find one of the adult owls, but eventually I spotted one in a tree across the creek. I talked to a couple of people who said they thought the owls will reuse the old nest, which is lucky for me — I am terrible at finding nests.

We’ve all heard that owls can turn their heads all the way around to face 180o behind them — here is one demonstrating that ability. It stayed rear-facing for a minute or so — obviously this wasn’t a big deal for it.