Canvasback - Aýthya valisinéria

I feel really lucky today as I have yet to photograph one of the most famous waterfowl of our area.  Since the days of uncountable waterfowl being harvested in obscenely vast quantities by market gunners through today when conservationists have prevented their extinction the Canvasback has been touted both as a symbol of the Chesapeake and as the ultimate in gourmet dining.  But regardless it is a beautiful and uncommon sight in the North East River.  This male was swimming in open waters of the still frozen river at North East Isles, a place of condominium type housing between the Pennsylvania Railroad and  the river where in my fathers day incredible amounts of gravel dredged from the flats were loaded aboard railroad cars to be carried afar to cities for construction. In my youth it was just an abandoned pier where people came to swim and carry on with campfires and drinking long into the night.