Thanks! I seldom use a tripod, but since I was in the car, I just balanced the Canon 400mm lens against the window. My Canon EOS 40D needs strong light from behind and to be close to work well, so I was glad the Buffleheads came as close as they did..about 40 feet away while fighting. As to why they were fighting, Buffleheads are monogamous, at least for a few years at a time, so apparently the newcomer male was defending his mate of choice that year. Perhaps she'd not yet made up her own mind because she kept approaching the single male, bobbing her head, and he'd bob back. Whenever he noticed this the first male would attack and drive the single male away, even though the single male kept trying to continue his foraging dives between attacks. These sea ducks are among the last to migrate to their breeding grounds in Canada, where they use Northern Flicker and Pileated Woodpecker holes by small lakes (link to Bufflehead pdf files http://seaduckjv.org/infoseries/buff_sppfactsheet.pdf ) For the Wood Ducks, I crawled into an old slab wood lean-to blind and balanced the lens against a cross bar. They are very jittery and I've not been able to sneak up on them since

I don't agree. I have pet geese and when they making a nest across our ditch, the little ones would getting stuck in it because they can't climb on narrow walls like their parents do. Parents don't always know what is better. If I need to get the babies and parents are trying to attack, I normally just grab it by the neck close to its head and hold down its wings with the other hand. But don't pull or try to pick up it up by neck. Just hold its head so they can't bite you. After that you can restrict the mother in some box until babies are moved. Incubation period for my geese is around 30 days.

I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of the cranes. Guess I'll have to get better at sneaking up on them! It's also difficult when your property is flat with no mature trees or shrubs except along the fenceline. I'll have to work on that. Here's a pic of a visitor that came to the house. That was last year and he kept coming back, I expect because he was hunting toads and frogs (and probably the occasional garter snake). We get various water birds because there is a conservation area 15 miles south of us and a large marsh about an hour north of us and we see them flying overhead from one to the other. To bad most of them never land. Anyway, here he is. Both these pics were taken from inside the house. It's a black capped Night Heron. Cute huh? Here' a closer one. When I saw movement at the side of the house, I ran in and got my camera and then headed for the kitchen. When I got to the door, I stopped because he was standing on the windowsill. I walked right up to the counter and started snapping away. Gues he was used to the attention because he didn't move, just kept watching me and posing.

Thanks for saving the little guy. Hognosed Snakes play dead when disturbed and I'm sure that's what this one was doing. Good thing you closed the paper bag or that check out person at Walmart might still be in therapy. ;-)