Back Creek Canards sur la Glace

I haven't gone out of my way to view water fowl in our area. I know what Canada Geese are, also Mallard ducks, and Herring and Great Black-Backed gulls, but as for whatever else are out there on the water, I really do not have a clue about what to expect. Today my wife surprised me with a lunch reservation at Sam's Waterfront Restaurant near where we live. From our table-for-two next to the window above one of the inlets of Back Creek, we could look down on the water and out through the docks of Chesapeake Harbour Marina, where many sail
boats are parked for the winter. Near where we sat, there was a part of the harbor next to the bank where the water was still frozen over from the cold weather the past weeks. As we sat and talked, I noticed a pair of ducks swimming our way - no idea of what they were. I watched them dive and surface again and again, obviously feeding on something below the surface. It is amazing how these animals can live with the cold. These is another restaurant that we like that is on another inlet, but it is closed for the season because there is only outside dining (1). After a while, more ducks came our way, these different than the first pair, but also strikingly beautiful. After a warm bowl of Maryland cream of crab soup, and a Belgian endive salad served with julienne cut pears, blue cheese, spiced walnuts, and walnut vinaigrette (2), we headed home - Jan to the kitchen (3) and me to my laptop to identify the birds I saw on the water. As it turned out, what I saw were Red Headed (a) and Hooded Merganser (b) ducks. The Website that helped me with the identification was the Waterfowl Identification page on the Ducks Unlimited site. Not expecting to see as beautiful birds as these close to home, I can now see myself beginning to look around a little bit to find a place to watch for more kinds of ducks and waterfowl - what has taken me so long to pay attention to the likes of these?
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(1) Ken's Back Porch Cafe. We didn't know it existed until Commissioning Week at the Naval Academy this past May. Jan's sister-in-law and brother from Charlotte, North Carolina had found it on the Web while here for graduation - it's funny how out-of-towner's can find the best places to eat.

(2) Jan had the creamed crab soup as well, and the Sam's Chopped Salad: blue cheese, romaine lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, red onion, bacon, and roasted corn, with an add-on of chicken.

(3) Dinner tonight will be Julia Child's recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon - we will watch Julie and Julia afterward. (as it turned out, we watched the original version of Tron.)