Hooded Merganser Mugs
Description: One of my most fascinating encounters to date: a small co-ed flock of Hooded Mergansers put in a two-hour "cameo" appearance (and extended courtship displays) at Centennial Beach in early February 2015. For more than half an hour, I was totally entranced by the courtship displays of the four males as they attempted to entice the two females into noticing them with head raises, bobs, and frog-like croaking. The ladies, of course, were less than impressed. Photographed at Boundary Bay Regional Park, in Tsawwassen, BC, Canada.
Description: A haunting, high-contrast stipple illustration of Charon, the ferryman of Hades, standing on a skiff with a skull-mounted prow. Charon is depicted as a hooded, skeletal figure holding a flaming staff, with "ΧΑΡΩΝ" (Charon in Greek) rendered in a distressed, vertical serif typeface.
