Paddling With Mergs

Until the last few days, we’ve had a small group of Common Mergansers on the river behind our house. In several kayak outings I’ve mixed with them, and when I had my camera onboard, trying to photograph them. With a moving river, skittish birds, and trying to balance the boat and the paddle, it’s an interesting challenge.

Up ahead are five mergansers already easing away from me as they see the boat.
I got four of them in the frame
The next day I got them going upstream.
They settled for a bit and I was able to get abeam of them
Hey, let’s get moving south and away from that guy with the blue boat.

The river is pretty barren now, as are the trees, and frost is in the forecast. We’ve had good birding this season on the North Branch of the Winooski.