Hooded Merganser

 It is a rare occurrence but it does happen that Hooded Mergansers find their way to Newfoundland. This little guy showed up at Forest Pond about two weeks ago and seems to have settled it. It is eating well and appears healthy.

 Yet, this Hooded Merganser has not taken to people. Forest Pond is a good size and this little duck stays close to the centre. I did arrive there one day and it was near the shore but as soon as it heard the car, it bolted to the middle of the pond again. This has made it very difficult to photograph him. I have visited him on four occasions and on all but one, the cloud cover was so thick that it was impossible to get a focus at such a distance.

On my last trip over the clouds were rolling past the sun allowing for some moments to be brighter than others. That was when I got the best pictures.  These shots really do not do justice to this great little bird. I may get another opportunity to try again on Friday. If not, I will just have to settle on these shots for this year. When the Hooded Merganser prepares to dive, its hood disappears and his head looks smooth as in this picture.

This image shows the full hood at its finest. This is a very interesting little duck. It appears quite small next to the Black Ducks but it is 18 inches in length. It is a good thing that he has chosen to rest in a pond where there is no hunting allowed.

Common Eider

Common Eider can be found around the coast of Newfoundland several months out of the year. It was in December of last year that I came upon a raft of Common Eider that had several hundred birds. The males are black and white and the females are brown.

 It is very entertaining to watch them drift and heave and hove with the waves.  While I stood shivering in the cold air at Cape Spear, they seemed perfectly happy. I watched and hoped that they would work their way closer to shore but that didn't happen.

 Just recently in Oliver's Cove, Tilting, I came upon this lone female Common Eider. Apparently, eider are a common sight in this area, but today there was only the one. It is not a good idea for a lone eider to stray from the raft.

This is why. When on a tour last December to the Southern Shore, we found a single female (King, I think)eider swimming in an inlet, alone. Before we knew it a Bald Eagle swept down and lifted it right out of the water. The moral of the story is: "Never swim alone."

Common Merganser

 As you may have gathered by now my camera was loaded with pictures taken on November 11, 2011.  Many people felt lucky-in-love and got married on that date. Others like me chose to spend the day with a favorite pass time, birding. It did turn out to be a lucky day for me.

After seeing more birds than anticipated at Harbour Grace, my friend and I drove back toward St. John's via the scenic route. Along the way we stopped at Clarke's Beach and I got my best look at a lone Common Merganser swimming relatively close to shore.  This is one of those birds that typically stays out of camera range and as soon as they see a person along the shoreline, they slowly but steadily move farther away.

This was not the case last Friday.  This single Common Merganser may have been in the area a while and developed a sense of confidence around people because while it was not close to shore it was closer than usual.

We had a great chance to look at it as it swam in the sunlight and stayed in the area.

Further up the inlet we found two Red-breasted Mergansers that were exhibiting more typical behaviour.  They really didn't want to come close at all. Nevertheless, they were close enough for us to compare the two species.  Having seen them together like this for the first time really helped me to distinguish their differences.

Every little encounter such as this continues to layer on experience that will be useful in identifying birds in the future. As a birder I can never get too much experience.