On the banks of the old Raritan

Female Common Merganser

Ring-necked Ducks

Lake Nelson is frozen so we have no wintering ducks. We took a walk on the D&R Canal in New Brunswick (off Landing Lane) and encountered a few.

Common Mergansers take a snow day on Lake Nelson

 

We've never seen so many common mergansers.

Today's Mergansers

Today we're lucky enough to have larger than usual groupings of both the hooded and common mergansers.

 

 

 

 

The top photo shows one of the pairs of hooded mergansers that have been floating around Lake Nelson today. The bottom three photos are female common mergansers: fighting over whose fish it is, showing off, and having a bad hair day.

Closeup photos of Common Mergansers

It turns out that it pays to have a duck blind in your backyard. We've worked out a system of going out the front door, sneaking down the fence line, hiding behind the shed, and then sitting on a bench behind the camouflage blanket that is draped over a fence at the water's edge. It's a good spot just to watch the antics of the mergansers without scaring them off. Today, after waiting a while, some common mergansers swam by. The top two are a female and the bottom a male. These pictures are definitely worth clicking on to get a detailed image. There are some hooded mergansers in the area, so we might not go out for groceries today.

Common Mergansers on Lake Nelson

 

 

The lake is thawing again, just a little ice on the shady side. Common Mergansers have come back. The top shows a female being followed by a male. The bottom is three males, one starting to dive for a fish.

The first common merganser of the year at Lake Nelson

Mike noticed a female common merganser swimming among the geese by its distinctive dive this morning. Chris gets credit for spotting the female hooded mergansers. They all joined up for a swim.

Hooded Mergansers and Common Mergansers

Wow! What a day here at Lake Nelson. There seems to be a merganser convention going on. Looks like the happy little couple came back and brought along some friends. Chris has spent the majority of the day on the dock or in the windows just watching their antics.

I love this shot even though the ones in the back are blurry because I call it "The Leader of the Pack."

Is she giving him the eye or what?

I think this is the first time we've got a clear enough shot that you can see the eye on this guy.

Common Mergansers: Two Girls For Every Boy

They spent a pleasant afternoon sunning themselves without much diving.

Female Common Merganser

She looks so pretty and so proud, doesn't she! And her hair is not blowing in the wind like in another female Common Merganser that we posted.

Female Common Merganser and Two Males

Common Mergansers (one has a fish)