This week I have some images of red-breasted merganser chicks I spotted while out kayaking earlier this year. I happened upon the group resting on a rock as I was heading back toward shore. Mum was alert as I paddled by squeezing off a few images as I floated past.
A couple of weeks later, I spotted a group of six swimming in a reedy area and managed a few images of the group. I’m pretty sure these are the same chicks all grown up. It’s such a privilege to be able to see these birds grow up in the wild.
I had a few encounters with a male and each time he was alone. I learned that males and females are monogamous only for the breeding season and once the female begins incubating the eggs, the male leaves the female on her own to raise the young. This seems to be the case in all merganser species. I suppose you might say mergansers are the deadbeat dads of the waterfowl family!
The oldest recorded Red-breasted Merganser was a female, and at least 9 years, 6 months old when she was shot in Alaska, the same state where she had been banded.*