First Posting (five images) of a large brood or two or three.....broods of Common Mergansers.

Some friends and my wife and I were just cruising around the lake when all of a sudden someone spotted this flurry of activity along the shore of the bay across from our cottage. It turned out to be a very large group of young Mergansers in a feeding frenzy. We counted about 25 young in the group, but couldn't be sure as they were going helter-skelter running across the water, as it were, chasing fish as well as the lucky ones with a fish. There was only one female adult with the group, which, I think, probably consisted of at least two-to-three broods. I only got a few good shots of this activity as they were moving right along and the water was rather choppy. Image # 1, above, shows them running and flapping across the water.


One of the young with a large fish trying to down it in a hurry as it keeps on running to get away from the others.


The next morning, my wife looked out a window and said, "Hurry, there is a large group of ducks chasing each other along the shore." I quickly grabbed my camera and managed to get a few shots even though the light was poor as the sun was still behind the trees. It was the same group of young Mergansers + one Caregiver (THE BOSS) again that we saw on the far shore the afternoon previous. In the above shot (# 3) they are seen jumping/running across my neighbour's dock. Again, they were in a feeding frenzy and disappeared quickly around a point.


About two hours later, my Grandson and I set off in my boat to see if we could find the troop of Mergansers. Sure enough, we found them about a Km. down shore, with most of them lounging on a dock seeking shade under some lawn chairs as it was very hot. Apparently, they had all finished breakfast and were now content to just lay back and let it digest.


MOM, or THE BOSS stood guard on the dock and kept a watchful eye. How she kept control over this troop of 25 - 30 young is beyond me, but she seemed very much in command. I think she deserves the "CAREGIVER-of-the-Year" award.
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To Be Continued tomorrow.