On the 23rd, we saw Lucky and her ducklings in our swimming hole. When I checked the camera pointed at the river, it was fun to see that they had swum by minutes earlier. I counted 9 ducklings out of the original 11. It looks like they are growing fast. Notice the one duckling that pops up from a dive. Hooded Mergansers eat mostly fish, insect larvae on submerged rocks, and crayfish.
I think Common Mergansers are uncommonly striking. These were cruising by below the house, caught on my trail cam.
A pair of Common Mergansers with the male still in breeding plummage.
I love how one of the ducklings gets to ride on mom's back.
I made a rather crude 7 minute video of "Lucky's" nesting and fledging of her ducklings. Warning, the exit of the ducklings from the box gets dramatic. The link is below. For some reason you have to highlight the link and right click open this link to get it to open up.
https://youtu.be/gdkXbBp8EDg
