Wood Ducks are one of my favorites and I think the most difficult to get a good image of because of the contrast between of all the light and dark colors. I'm always excited when I find a woody and ever hopeful that this may be the time I get a signature image. But it wasn't going to be today because the woody was just staying back in the reeds, feeding. Oh well, the next time.As I was walking back to my car, I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye. A quick look through my binoculars and I could see that it was a Muskrat and it was heading my way.
Using my car as a blind I was able to watch and photograph the Muskrat as it foraged around on the open waters of the swamp looking for food, unaffected by my presence.
Watching this little guy go about his business without a care in the world was one of those magic moments that is a side benefit of birdwatching .
Ahhhh, The rewards of birdwatching!
Peter
Equipment used: Canon 40 d with a EF 400 f5.6 lens hand held
All Rights reserved, © 2009 Peter Manship
With the sun in my eyes I thought Rough-legged Hawk hover-hunting. The hawk then flew over to a snag right next to the road. 
I got this image and realized that this hawk could be a Red-tailed Hawk which also hover-hunts sometimes. The difference is the height the red-tailed was at , about a third of the distance closer to the ground then a Rough-legged Hawk would hover-hunt at. From this new angle I could see the tail banding and the what I call spangled breast feathers of the Red-tail as apposed to the dark more solid belly and single dark tail band of the Rough-legged hawk. So if I hadn't tried to get a photo of this bird on the snag I would have ID-ed this bird as a Rough-legged hawk an been 100% wrong . Which is one of the many reasons that I love birding, your always learning something new about the birds your watching... This last image I got driving home on rt103 in Rockingham Vt, the hawk was gliding along in big circles which allowed me to get a good image.
My friend asked how fast are you going? 33-34 mph I said, grabbed my camera, stuck it out the window and fired. The bird turned changing direction, I fired two more images off and the hawk went right over the car out into the field and land on it's pray. Luck is a has it's rewards, what a magic moment to watch. 
By the time I got my car turned around the bird had moved to the other side of the road. It took me a few minutes to re-locate it hiding in a larger group of bushes were it was not giving up very good looks. A noise truck passing spooked the bird and it took to the wing in classic pheasant on the run manner. 
This bird was calling loudly as if trying to locate another bird (female maybe) and it's coloring was just fabulous, bright red head, golden browns to rufous against the snow covered background, just beautiful. What a great way to end a day of birding.