Most days you can find cormorants diving for fish around the fishing pier.

I realized when I cropped this up, it was not a good sign. He must have stolen this fish from someone’s fishing line. I’m not sure if he swallowed the hook and bait.

This one was busy. He caught 3 fish in a matter of minutes.

A lone red breasted merganser floating close to the pier.

After preening, she was showing off.

Here’s something I’ve never seen before. A common loon already in his summer colors. This bird is a drab gray during the winter and I occasionally see them floating around piers. The common loon is the Minnesota state bird and this is how they usually see them. They look so much prettier here.

Catching fish.

Above is how we usually see the common loon in the winter. I took this last winter. They are usually all gray except for those red eyes.

I thought it was going to be a quiet morning at Fort Desoto but seeing the common loon in his black and white feathers was different. All dressed up and ready to go. This was in mid-March so he was molting early. He was probably on his way back home to Minnesota and decided since it was still snowing up there to stay here in sunny Florida a little longer. I would too.

Linking up to Saturday’s Critters