dcr
Deceased Member
Registered: February 2004
Posts: 1,317
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These 4 male American Mergansers are paddling down the Merrymeeting River in stately procession. They are striking birds, with glossy greenish-black heads and necks and a bright reddish-orange bill. Being fish-eating ducks, they are excellent divers and underwater swimmers, and that bill is highly adapted for catching fish - it has a hooked projection at the tip and serrated edges at the sides, remarkably efficient at grasping slippery fish. They tend to breed somewhat north of here and most of them will soon leave. They are like wood ducks and goldeneyes in that they like to nest in tree cavities, if they can find them. Imagine that 1st step out into the world for the young ducklings, 20 to 30 ' straight down.
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