Two hooded mergansers floating almost side by side in dim morning light, the female slightly ahead. They are medium-small aquatic waterfowl, the female brown and dark grey with a frilly crest, here folded back, and the male rusty brown and black with a white hood and white stripes on the breast, and its one eye showing in the photo a striking gold.

The male hooded merganser holds a small bullhead in its beak, and the fish is flipping wildly.