I surveyed the loop drive around Stewart Park at 16:00 Friday and found it very cold and windy, with white caps on the lake. I saw fewer birds than Tim Lenz had seen around 09:00 and no life and death dramas with hawks “rescuing” accosted female wigeons. My highlight was watching the courtship of the Hooded and Common Merganzers in their brilliant plumages.
Waterfowl numbers were low on the lake with only Lesser Scaup, Canada Geese, Redheads, Ring-billed Gulls, and Mallards braving the waves. Robins and geese were scattered all over the lawns, large groups of gulls and a few mallards foraged on the flooded sections, and a mixed flock of Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles foraged in the dryer grass near the tennis court. Small pockets of mixed ducks, including a male canvasback and a few buffleheads, were behind the boathouse, and an isolated group of Ring-necked Ducks remained slightly upstream from them. Closer to the upstream bridges, geese dominated the inlet and the land around it. A small group of mergansers, swimming low in the water, patrolled the deeper sections of inlet and a striking male Wood Duck hung close to the shoreline. Two male and two female Common Merganzers swam about in discreet pairs, occasionally stopping to dive and preen. One pair chased each other around in the water a bit before the female flew off, followed closely by her partner. The pair encircled the area overhead and eventually retuned to the inlet a short distance away from the second pair of Common Mergansers. The pairs continued to spend time in proximity of one another, sleeping, swimming, preening, and diving. Close by, five male and ten female Hooded Merganzers milled around, sleeping, preening, drinking, but predominantly swimming and diving. At one point, two pairs came fairly near each other in what appeared as a communal courtship display. The females both preened briefly and the two males and one female drank in a stylized fashion, which I presumed to be a form of greeting as in Ritualized Drinking (behaviors described are from the *Birds of North America*, see citation for Figure 3. below). A female flapped her wings and shook her body and wings several times. Her partner swam around her twice with his neck forward and head feathers erect (Courtship-Intent Posture). The pair alternated flapping their wings, swam apart, and returned together again. The female dipped her bill in the water several times and the male swam around her again in a Courtship-Intent Posture. He stopped, stretched his beak upwards and gave a call (Salute), which I could not hear well over the honking of the geese. While the first pair of Hooded Mergansers performed these behaviors, the second pair also interacted. The second female dipped her bill in the water a few times in succession and rose up slightly, stretching her neck and shaking herself. The male swam around her and several chases ensued. The male performed the Courtship-Intent Posture, followed by rising slightly from the water and flapping his wings. He again swam around her and then chased her across the inlet. After a few more chases initiated by the male, the male swam around the female in the Courtship-Intent Posture, possibly calling. I did not see any copulatory behavior. A male Hooded Merganser (perhaps from the first pair or perhaps a third male) performed a series of behaviors, illustrated below in “Figure 3,” in front of and next to one female (perhaps from the first pair or perhaps a third female,) although another female also stayed near by. The male raised his crest (Crest-raisings) and repeatedly shook his head slightly forwards and backwards (Head-shaking) at least three times. As he did so, his chest was puffed up and held above the water. His body went back to a neutral posture for a moment before he rose again and threw his head completely backwards in a Head-throw. He held this position for a second, made a long gurgled call (I could not hear it clearly above the goose honks), returned to a neutral position, and turned away from the female(s). He repeated the Head-throw pattern twice more, directed at the same female. After resuming a neutral position, the male circled the female and then chased her for at least twenty yards in the water. They continued to swim nearby one another, with the second female tagging along. I did not see which bird initialed the Head-Pumping, but a male-female pair positioned next to one another in the inlet was alternating side-to-side headshakes. The female rose up, shook her body feathers and wings, and then swam off with the male in pursuit. They continued to swim around with each other, preening and diving periodically. (I have no idea if these individuals were previously described or a third or fourth pairing.) Both species of mergansers intermingled in the inlet and stayed fairly close to each other, however, they remained segregated from the other waterfowl species. Good birding to all! Candace *Figure 3.* *Hooded Merganser courtship displays. **Clockwise from upper left: Crest-raising, Head-shaking, Head-throw, Head-pumping, and Turn-the-back-of-the head.* Drawing by J. Schmitt. Dugger, B. D., K. M. Dugger and L. H. Fredrickson. 2009. Hooded Merganser ( Lophodytes cucullatus), *The Birds of North America* Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the *Birds of North America Online*:http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/098. Canada Goose 200+ (all over on land and water) Wood Duck 1 (in inlet along shoreline) American Black Duck 2 (behind boathouse) Mallard 60+ (all over on land and water) Canvasback 1 male (in inlet) Redhead 10 (in lake) Ring-necked Duck 33 (in inlet) Lesser Scaup 15 (in lake) Bufflehead 4 (in inlet) Hooded Merganser 15 (in inlet) Common Merganser 2 pairs (in inlet) Killdeer 2 (on golf course foraging) Ring-billed Gull 100+ (all over on land and water) Herring Gull 3 (on land by lakeshore) Great Black-backed Gull 1 (on land by lakeshore) Rock Pigeon 5 (on main pavilion roof) Mourning Dove 5 (foraging on lawn by pavilions) Downy Woodpecker 2 (on inlet-side willows) Blue Jay 3 (in trees) American Crow 7 (foraging in wet lawn patch) Black-capped Chickadee 1 (by pavilions) Carolina Wren 1(heard by boathouse) American Robin 20+ (all over lawns foraging) European Starling 15 (foraging on lawn near park entrance) Song Sparrow 1 (heard by boathouse) Northern Cardinal 2 males (by swan pen) Downy Woodpecker 2 (on willow along inlet) Red-winged Blackbird 15 (near tennis courts foraging on lawn) Common Grackle 11 (near tennis courts foraging on lawn) House Sparrow 5 (by pavilions foraging on lawn) -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
