Merganslings!

As we move into late spring, this time of year is a particularly enjoyable time as we begin to see more and more new avian offspring and, like most baby birds, they are decidedly cute! Such was the case when after work last week I visited a local pond just on the edge of downtown Calgary and was very pleased to see a female Common Merganser shepherding her large brood (12 or so) of merganslings around the shallows as they foraged for invertebrates.

Getting down low (on your knee or belly) bring you to the duck’s perspective

I have no idea whether ‘mergansling’ is a real word or not, but I still think it’s a great descriptor for these fluffy little characters.

While my research indicates these birds lay on average 9-12 eggs, so a brood of this size should be considered average. Nonetheless, it is still quite a sight to behold so many little puffballs zipping along behind their mother.

Every now and then, perhaps because they sighted some perceived threat, the merganslings would all launch themselves onto their mother’s back & endeavour to ride along…of course there was only room for a few chicks so it was a bit of a scramble that would usually end when the mother dived below for food.

From a photography perspective, baby birds and their doting parents provide plenty of interesting photo opportunities albeit for a seemingly ever so brief period, so make sure you make the most of it while you can (of course, make sure you always put the welfare of your subjects first & if you see signs of stress then it’s time to back off or even leave). My advice would be to shoot at your widest aperture (lowest f-stop number) and use an ISO of 400-800 to get a shutter speed around 1/1000 of higher. Why? Two reasons: one, these merganslings really zip about & you need a fast shutter speed to freeze the action & avoid a blurry shot:

And secondly, a low f-stop means a shallow depth of field around your subject which can really enhance the appeal of the resulting image:

Again, the use of depth-of-field highlights the in-focus chick second from front.

And my over-arching tip for ducks and shorebirds is to ‘get down low’, absolutely get on your knee and even better on your belly if you can – this takes you to a ‘bird’s eye’ perspective that can really make your shots stand out from the crowd.

The shallow depth of field draws attention to the mother

And finally, these merganslings were obviously the result of a male & female mating at some point earlier so when I saw these guys last week it drew my mind back to a few months ago when I witnessed two adult mergansers at the same pond engaged in some seemingly very rough mating behaviour (again, I’m told, apparently all very normal):

The pursuit of the female by the male

Held by the scruff of the neck…

…and by the end, her head is only just above the water. No romance here!

While it’s unlikely I’ll ever know, it is fun to speculate that these merganslings were the result of this particular encounter!

Cheers, Tim.