Swimming into December

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Swimming into December

December 2, 2014 by Mike Powell

I don’t know if they are going to stay for the winter or are just passing through, but yesterday, the first day of December, there were a dozen or so Hooded Merganser ducks (Lophodytes cucullatus) cavorting in the water at Huntley Meadows Park, my local marshland park.

I was first alerted to their presence when I heard the unmistakable frog-like croak of one of the males. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology states that these ducks are usually silent except during courtship, when the courting male “makes a deep, rolling sound like the call of a pickerel frog, earning it the nickname of “frog-duck” in Georgia.” Check out this link to hear the call of the courting male Hooded Merganser. It seems a bit early for courting to be taking place, but the males were bouncing around as I have seen them do in the spring.

The Hooded Mergansers stayed pretty far out in the water and this is the best shot I could get of one of the males paddling by. The comic-like appearance of these ducks always makes me smile and I love their shiny golden eyes.

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Hooded Merganser, Hooded Merganser duck, Huntley Meadows Park, Lophodytes cucullatus, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto | 11 Comments

11 Responses

on December 2, 2014 at 7:03 am | Reply Mjollnir

Looks like a beautiful duck but I’ve never seen them here.
- on December 2, 2014 at 7:07 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  This is a relatively small duck, but is one of our prettiest (along with the wood duck, which I’ll also feature this week).
on December 2, 2014 at 7:04 am | Reply Mjollnir

Oops, just noticed their range is entirely in NA!
on December 2, 2014 at 8:50 am | Reply New Hampshire Garden Solutions

Interesting. Neither the male or female really sounds like a duck.
- on December 2, 2014 at 7:13 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  It’s very odd to hear them in real life, not at all like the mallards that I am used to hearing.
on December 2, 2014 at 11:45 am | Reply Jet Eliot

Wow, exquisite photo Mike. 🙂
- on December 2, 2014 at 7:12 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. The Hooded Mergansers were so far away that I wasn’t sure that I would be able to get a clear shot of one. This is a cropped shot, but I think I managed to capture some of the details that show the little duck’s personality.
on December 2, 2014 at 6:33 pm | Reply donna213

Nice Mike. We get them to stick around and often they have problems when they do in winter.
- on December 3, 2014 at 5:52 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Donna. I have trouble imagining how these little guys would survive when the ponds freeze over.
on December 3, 2014 at 2:56 am | Reply Marie Keates

Maybe they think it’s spring? We have had such a mild autumn here lots of nature is confused, apparently frog spawn has been spotted in a few places.
- on December 3, 2014 at 5:56 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  It was pretty warm that day so perhaps that’s why the males might have been feeling a bit frisky. We’ve had a very erratic weather pattern recently.