I take Merlin with me on my walks these days to help me identify the early spring migrants that are finding their way back to Wisconsin. Merlin, a free birding app available from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, like the magician of old, works its magic by helping to identify birds you are seeing or hearing.
The app assists in identifying birds in three ways, by their songs and calls, via a photo you take and by providing information on the bird you are seeing. You can learn more about this app at https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org.
Using Merlin is an easy and fun way to come to know or to relearn bird species. With spring migrants returning that means more birds and their songs to keep up with. Merlin “told” me of the robin singing in the tree down the street and helped me identify a northern harrier we saw soaring over the Oconto marsh.
Spring brings back many of our waterfowl. It’s amazing how early they arrive; as soon as there are openings in the ice of our bays, lakes and streams, there are the birds. These stopover areas are important to migrating waterfowl as they provide resting and feeding areas for birds that have flown hundreds and even thousands of miles to get here, some to stay and some to move farther north into Canada and the Arctic to spend their summers.
Already this year we have seen lesser scaup, Canada geese, goldeneye, both the red-breasted and common mergansers, and mallards on the waters of the bay.
We recently enjoyed watching a flock of about 25 red-breasted mergansers at the Oconto Harbor. We learned from the Cornell Lab All About Birds (AAB) website that the energetic antics of the males we were seeing were courting displays.
Holding his head high, the male bows to the female, tipping up and putting his rear in the air while holding his bill high, as if to say, “Do you see me now?” A female that accepts these attentions stretches out her neck and holding her bill down, she raises and lowers her neck in a bobbing motion.
There are three species of mergansers that grace our waters, all easily found on the Merlin app. In addition to the red-breasted, both the hooded and common mergansers occur in Wisconsin. All three species arrive early in the spring from their wintering grounds, some from along the Atlantic coast, and others from further south in the U.S.
According to AAB, all three species sport long slim bills with tiny serrations to help them hold onto slippery fish or other prey such as crustaceans (e.g. crayfish), aquatic insects, amphibians and vegetation. The bill color is mostly reddish-orange for all three species, except for the male hooded merganser, which has a jet black bill. These ducks are often called sawbills, named after that thin serrated bill.
It’s the striking colors and crests of these birds that attract the eye. The breeding male red-breasted merganser is the most colorful with a dark green head topped with a rakish looking crest of longer feathers, a piercing red eye, white neck band, cinnamon speckled breast and layered black, white, and gray body. The female has a rusty red and dark gray head, a jaunty crest and otherwise is mostly gray in color.
A good way to identify the male common merganser, the largest of the three species, is by its mostly bright white coloring set off by an iridescent dark green head and crest. The female is mostly grey with a rusty brown head and crest.
The hooded merganser is the smallest of the three species but sports the showiest head gear. Adult males can raise a large wedge-shaped white crest that is easily seen. The crest along with the bright black, white and chestnut coloring on the rest of their body makes them hard to miss. Females have an elegant cinnamon colored crest with the remainder of their body dressed in more muted tones of blacks and browns.
All the mergansers are excellent divers and swimmers but not so good on land. This is because the legs of mergansers are located near their rear, according to AAB. This makes them awkward when walking on land and when on the water requires them to get a running start to get airborne. Those same legs are great at propelling them under water when diving for fish or other prey.
It’s an exciting time of year with so many of our avian friends returning north to grace our skies, waters and lands, and to enliven our lives. Keep your eyes and ears open for their delights and consider downloading the Merlin app, which can be an interesting and helpful companion on those spring outings.
Cathy Carnes is a retired biologist in Oconto who worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Green Bay Field Office and prior to that with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Branch in Buffalo, New York. As endangered species coordinator for the USFWS, she helped conserve and recover federally listed threatened and endangered species in Wisconsin.
