Common Birds 55 - Common Merganser
Friday, January 12
I find it comforting to see a lot of birds with ‘common’ in their name, and more than just comfort, there’s a deep feeling of rightness, even justice, a sense that the world is just as it should be which wraps me up and warms me like a thick blanket. As is proper, as is meet and right, I saw a bunch of common mergansers today.
It's been a week of extremes. Sunday brought a foot of snow. Monday, I had to high step through all the snow while stooping under branches weighed nearly to the ground by the thick covering of ice and snow. I saw two golden-crowned kinglets and even managed to take a terrible picture of them before a tree, that rascal, expertly dropped cold, cold snow on the back of my neck in such a way that it immediately ran down my back and soaked my sweater. Then Tuesday night, the temperature rose to almost sixty and rain fell for twelve hours. On Wednesday, the snow was replaced with flooding, but more critically for our family, daycare was closed. Too many teachers had Covid. So we had to scramble to care for our son while working, and my wife especially was absolutely drowning in work.
But today, today feels almost normal. I don’t feel sick for the first time since December 23rd. The temperature is seasonal. The sun is shining on us all. Daycare is blessedly open. The heron (I suspect the same one who wintered here last year) is posted at his far fishing spot. I’m on a walk. I approach the river slowly because of potential ducks. Too often, I’ve carelessly scared everyone away. Through the trees I spot four hooded mergansers just hanging out. Their hoods are down. Six or seven female common mergansers are ducking under the bridge, entering the pond from the river. They’re fairly large ducks, bigger than mallards, with gray backs and deep red-brown, almost burgundy, heads. Their feathers flow off the back of their heads like mullets. When they emerge from a dive, droplets gather and glitter at the end of their ‘hair’ feathers. I don’t try to get closer, mergansers scare pretty easily, and I want them to just have a normal day, too. So, I turn back from the river, heading off in the direction of a nuthatch’s call.
