Merganser 'Mohawks' part of world-class opportunities
Article content
“Oooh, look at those ‘Mohawks,’” Jody Allair exclaimed, somewhat obtusely.
“I know, I know, Wood Duck gets the sexiest duck of the year annually,” he continued, turning 180 degrees to face his front-seat passenger, who admittedly was struggling to keep up to the turn in conversation as well. “But in my books, there are some real contenders. Pintails would be one, but the male Hooded Merganser is one attractive duck.
“With retractable Mohawks – how cool is that? They give Wood Ducks a run for their money, in my opinion.”
The Bird Studies Canada Biologist and Science Educator’s unparalleled enthusiasm and passion for things avian was overcoming a virtually sleepless night spent helping his three-year-old daughter Phoebe battle a high fever. Running essentially on adrenalin was having no tangible effect other than perhaps encouraging Allair to wax even more poetic on a favourite subject, for instance while describing the crests atop a couple of fine specimens of Lophodytes cucullatus, arguably similar to a distinctive human hair style.
But even he couldn’t make Tundra Swans materialize out of thin air.
Allair, leading a birding excursion in Hawaii for the front end of the spectacular annual migration, had viewed what he considered its peak through his office window, an estimated 8-10,000 birds flying over last Friday (March 28). In a normal year, swans will hang about the Long Point area, refuelling in its marshes and surrounding fields before continuing an arduous flight west and northwest to nesting grounds in the Yukon and Alaska.
Swans have been spotted in the area and north of usual haunts, but not tarrying at Long Point in normal numbers for normal times. Given ice conditions and time constraints due to the length of winter and lateness of spring, Allair believes most Tundras were essentially making a direct flight from the eastern seaboard on through.
“They weren’t even considering landing,” he said of the flying birds he saw Friday. “They were in a time crunch, they can’t wait for ideal conditions, they have a schedule and have to stick to it.”
The request had been for a Thursday morning Tundra tour, challenging given the swans ‘selfishly’ proved more concerned with getting on with nesting and cygnet-raising than any newspaper schedule. Not one to give up so easily, sleep-deprived or otherwise, Allair seized on their comparative dearth as an opportunity to highlight other area waterfowl species.
“Tundras really are just the tip of the iceberg about the Long Point birding experience. There’s a heck of a lot more right now and all year in terms of opportunities for birding.”
Our quest for alternative waterfowl began westward at the Lee Brown Marsh viewing area, its frozen surface attracting only a pair of distant and discouraged-looking Canadian Geese along its eastern bank.
“I know where we can find birds,” said Allair, reversing in the parking lot, before heading north, and then east again to a pond shielded by a row of trees along the north side of the road – temporary home to a couple of additional geese and a mixed bag of Mergansers.
Having won over a convert to the attributes of the latter, Allair headed east and then south to the bird-watching equivalent of ‘Old Faithful’, the small park adjacent to the pier at Port Rowan.
An estimated 1,000 ducks bobbed obligingly offshore, 90% of them Canvasbacks and Redheads, with the balance another half-dozen species including Buffleheads and Ringnecks.
“The poorly-named Ringnecks,” commented Allair, noting and illustrating through his spotting scope that while the species’ drakes do have a distinctive chestnut-coloured ring on their breast, they are far-more-easily identified from afar or in the water via stripes on their bill.
“What are those Buffleheads doing?” Allair interjected, abruptly turning 45 degrees to his left where a pair of floating males were slapping each other’s heads with their wings. “Hormones getting the best of the males,” Allair smiled, noting the dominance-establishing battle was directly linked to the proximity of a female Bufflehead.
Pre-mating behaviours are another incentive to early-season birding, says Allair, males trying to attract female attention in the avian translation of ‘hey ladies, look how awesome I look, I am suitable nesting material.’
“Birding is more than just finding and identifying and checking species off a list.”
Female Cardinals, for example, like the look of a large, brightly-coloured male, who sings a lot, given one who has that level of energy and health is a good bet for genetic material for her offspring. Each species has its own set of related criteria, built in over time.
“They are doing all sorts of things, it provides even more incentive to spend time them these birds,” said Allair. “They don’t just sit there and look pretty, they are really interesting to watch.”
In the waterfowl world, these behaviours may include beating a rival Bufflehead over its head, Hooded Mergansers elevating their ‘Mohawks’ or a Ringneck (viewed through the scope) obligingly puffing its chest out, moving its head up and down, and rising high off the surface of the water.
“Making themselves look large and dominant,” Allair explained. “Again, suitable nesting material.”
Heading back toward Bird Studies Canada’s home base, musings included the oft-proven fact that if you head out with a person who really knows their ‘game’, you won’t know what they know, but you’ll know a lot more than you did; and secondly, some of their enthusiasm may well rub off, along with appreciation for an area whose watching potential for birds of all feathers – Tundra Swans, Hooded Mergansers and songbirds – is as advertised, truly world class in nature.
“Long Point is such a great place to catch them,” Allair concluded in response. “It’s really special, I’m not just being a ‘homer,’ here.”