These female common mergansers were sharing a Denman shoreline rock recently (March 25) for a little grooming. Their prospective mates watched from the water a bit further off. Most of our over-wintering ducks have left or are on their way. Flocks of common mergansers often spend their nights in fresh water on their migration route north. Chickadee Lake was one their sites. They come in like a squadron of bombers at dusk.
Our three species of mergansers all have those sharp narrow beaks that they use effectively for catching fish and other aquatic prey. The male common merganser has the clean head lines without a tuft of feathers and the females have a reddish head with tuft ending in a distinct line on the neck.
Some of our over-wintering common mergansers will nest in tree cavities in this area, but many will migrate to fresh water lakes in BC, the Canadian north or Alaska. I once followed a female common merganser trailing a string of tiny ducklings along a forest seepage-path on her way to a lake on Quadra Island. Old standing dead trees near our water-ways are important habitat for these ducks and other birds!
