Hooded Mergansers

The Mystery Bird turned out to be a juvenile Hooded Merganser. I have now spotted and photographed these birds for four days, and after hours of research I am confident in my identification.  The adult male Hooded Merganser is very dramatic in his plumage, so it’s quite a stretch of the imagination to think these non-hooded juveniles are the same, but they are. Another fact that makes this identification unusual is that they are normally nest further north.