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I've concluded that one can never have enough magnification for outdoor photos. A nice long zoom and 1.5x crop camera body should be enough to eliminate generous photo cropping, right?  Nope, it helps but always want more zoom.

A group of adult female common mergansers were floating down the river at the far bank across from Saw Wee Kee Park. Brown head, tufts, white chin, long red bill, slate gray body. The river is wide at that spot, but what the heck let's give a shot at zoom and crop.

Black/white/gray reflections at the top are from the every present Canada geese which are everywhere in this county. Golden water reflections are from dried grasses at the river's edge.

No eagles were seen at the park today.  River ice has melted, and with miles of open water the eagles appear to have spread out up and down the river.  This past weekend Bald Eagle Watch Weekend was held at Starved Rock State Park where the lack of eagles story was the same. Talked to two people who attended, and they said only one eagle showed up. Guess the eagles didn't receive their invitations!