Sunday, May 1, 2011

Hooded Merganser Babies

While photographing waterlilies in the tea brown waters of the swamp, the leaves riffling gentling in the breeze, the silence broken only by the the song of Red-winged Blackbirds; an agitated jerking of distant leaves and the hint of ripples in the water revealed a duckling, then 2. Looking ahead of the stragglers, I saw a mama Hooded Merganser push through the hidden passages with a flotilla of 10 babies following in her wake.


Hooded Mergansers are cavity nesters in swampy areas. Given how many Wood Duck boxes are scattered around the Great Swamp, I am sure she appropriated one.

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