Ring-necks and Common Mergansers

     Ring-necked ducks and common merganser ducks are the diving ducks that probably most commonly migrate through southeastern Pennsylvania every March.  These two species of ducks, from different families of diving ducks, are more adapted to fresh water than other members of their respective families, the reason they migrate inland more than their relatives do.  Rafts of them land on human-made impoundments and abandoned and flooded quarries to rest and feed before continuing their migrations, providing more interest to those built lakes and ponds.  Those impoundments, by the way, provide more food and resting places for these ducks and other other types of water creatures. 
     Flocks of the mergansers and a few ring-necks winter here, if the impoundments stay at least partly ice-free.  But the numbers of both species are greatly increased by migrants in March.
     Drakes of both species are handsome in black and white.  Male mergansers are black on top with a green sheen to their heads and white on their sides and bellies.  That white causes them to be spotted for a bit of a distance in large bodies of water.  They also have red beaks.  Drake ring-necks are black on top and gray on their flanks, with a vertical, white bar in front of each gray side.  Those white bars stand out and aid in identifying this species from its close relatives
     Females of each kind are different than their mates.  Hen mergansers have gray plumage on their bodies and reddish-brown heads, each with a shaggy crest that makes them look like they had a bad feather day.  Female ring-necks are basically brown.  Females of both kinds are camouflaged to hatch eggs and rear ducklings in relative safety.
     Both these species nest in southern Canada and winter in the southern United States.  They migrate through southeastern Pennsylvania in spring and fall, and some individuals of each type winter here.
     While here on migration, ring-necked ducks dive under water to feed on aquatic vegetation and invertebrates they find on the bottoms of the impoundments they rest on.  They shovel up that food with their spoon-like beaks.
     Ring-necked ducks are classified with the bay duck family, Aythyinae, all of which are diving ducks.  Other members of their family are greater and lesser scaups, redhead ducks and canvasback ducks, all of which are more likely to winter in large rafts on the brackish and salt water of estuaries and inlets off the oceans.  But a few migrant individuals each of a couple species of bay ducks at a time join ring-necks on fresh water lakes and ponds.  Redheads and canvasbacks, by the way, do have reddish-orange head feathers.  
     Common mergansers also dive under water and use their long, thin, serrated bills for grabbing small fish.  They bring their victims to the surface to swallow them.  It's interesting to see several individuals of either species taking turns ducking under water for several seconds, then popping up while others dive.  They create an interesting, entertaining show on the water.
     After a few weeks in March, resting and feeding on fresh water impoundments here, as elsewhere, ring-necks and mergansers push farther north and west to their breeding grounds.  But their beauties and habits were a joy to experience while they were in this area in winter and, especially, during March.