Mergansers, my bird of the day.
I never expected a merganser morning. Sunday, I was out for my first kayaking birding float of the new year. I enjoy the calm stalking ability of floating in a kayak. This benefited me well as I was able to find and hang with a female merganser sheltering her brood. I noticed through the 600mm lens that she was harboring some ducklings, I had no idea how many. She didn't pay me much attention and I tried to keep my distance, move slowly, and not pay her too much attention. I watched her hiss and drive off a Starling that got too close, and then a Scrub Jay nearly simultaneously coming in from the other direction. I was starting to think, ok there’s nothing here move along, just as a duckling came out from under her and started for the water. Oh, this might get interesting, I’ll hang longer.
