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.