This is the 15th year of continuous daily publication for 365Caws. All things considered, it's likely it will be the last year as it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to find interesting material. However, I hope that I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world with my natural history posts, or encouraged a novice weaver or needleworker. If so, I've done what I set out to do.
Friday, September 3, 2021
Common Merganser, Mergus Merganser
Day 325: One of the many things I enjoy about kayaking is that it gives me the opportunity to observe waterfowl and shore bird species. At this same location several years ago, I saw a Spotted Sandpiper and was hoping that another one might be patrolling the shingle, but what I found instead was a group of five or six young Common Mergansers diving among the weeds in the shallows. They were quite active, and as soon as one made a dip, the others would follow, with the whole group often disappearing beneath the surface of the water and then popping back up en masse amid much splashing. I could not tell what they were eating, but young mergansers are only modestly discriminating. They will consume weed, invertebrates or tadpoles, although as they mature, they graduate to a diet of fish. Fry were plentiful in a nearby part of the river, but the aquatic weeds were too thick here for me to see what had attracted the birds. I watched them for fifteen minutes or so, entertained by their synchronous display of diving skills which, if not quite perfect, should have earned them a prize in their class.
Labels:
Common Merganser,
kayaking,
Mergus merganser,
Tilton River
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