It took a decade, times two, for the first appearance of a hooded merganser on Angelpond. They arrive as an unmistakable bird, although remembering the name required a Google search times two, no, times three.
The male’s black helmet head with bright white fan-shaped side design can be seen from across the pond even though the birds were only about a foot long.
These ducks are excellent swimmers, their method of finding food. They can dive straight downward from a rolling spin. It’s anyone’s guess where they might emerge after disappearing beneath the pond’s crest. They could easily cover most of the width of Angelpond in a single dive and then pop up in any direction.
With a capability of out-swimming most of the pond’s fish varieties, the hooded merganser uses its serrated bill to grasp slippery lunches. They bring the captured to the surface to maneuver the catch for a head-first gulp, exactly like the great blue herons. Herons are bank fishermen.
Unlike common mergansers, the hooded variety goes beyond sushi and will eat frogs, tadpoles, aquatic insects, crayfish, and even some vegetation.
Male merganser eyes are bright yellow and can change shape to correct for light refraction beneath the pond’s surface. These birds can literally control the curvature of their eyes’ corneas and lenses, creating superb vision both below and above the water. They even have eyelids times three, the third set (nictitating membranes) being clear and acting very much like a human swimmer’s goggles.
As the saying goes, “If it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.” Georgians sometimes call the hooded merganser a “frog duck” due to the lack of this duck’s quack. Displaying males, with hearts intent on a romantic liaison, utter a croaking or growling noise which some believe mimics a pickerel frog. Angelkeep hears it more liken to the deep throated, rattling, gurgle of wanton lust.
Besides the romantic gargling, hooded merganser males will flash their crest, toss their head back violently, turn in circles, and shake their body to attract a female. It appears somewhat akin to an Elvis impersonation. Maybe that’s where Elvis got his suave times two. His swagger times three.
Females lay nine to 11 eggs in tree cavities four to fifteen feet off the ground. Higher is possible. Mother’s confine nest material to her plucked belly down feathers. Fledgling hooded mergansers make that leap of faith with no hesitation and are excellent diving, swimming, fishermen immediately thereafter. Females, times two, or possible times three, often participate in brood parasitism. That is to say, females lay eggs in other females’ nests.
Angelkeep became so agog at the four-year return of hooded merganser ducks that it broke the self-imposed code of repetitive storytelling. Hooded mergansers were introduced in Angelkeep Journals in 2020. Remember 2020? Covid-19 flared its ugly head in America. But the repeat experience of the survival of hooded mergansers seemed to warrant a times two story.
Speaking of times two, for the repeat at Angelkeep Mr. Hooded Merganser had females, plural, times two, arriving with him. Google searches for merganser lifestyle indicated the jury yet out for determining if these ducks are monogamous. It’s also unknown at this point if hooded mergansers pair off for life. Obviously this trio arriving at Angelpond had their own way of dealing with life and thoughts of progeny ahead.
Male red wing blackbirds have been known at Angelkeep to protect the cattail and reed-attached nests containing egg offspring from a trio of female partners. Simultaneous marriages times two, or times three, are not unheard of in Angelpond bird society.
Canada geese partner unto death, in sickness and in health. Do hooded mergansers follow the practice of Canada fowl, Canada the location of many during breeding time? At Angelkeep the female conquest attempt by a single male hooded merganser seemed to be Paul Revere style, “One if by land, two if by sea.”
That’s just a local observation, quite unscientific.
Perhaps Mr. Hooded Merganser simply decided to apply Amish tradition of bundling, testing the waters, so to speak. Who knows, hooded merganser may even surpass this repeat Angelkeep Journals focus and in the future appear once again, a times three.
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their backyard and have named it “Angelkeep.”
