Dandy Day For Ducks
This beautiful male Rose Breasted Merganser, a diving duck in the sawbill family enjoys a day of fishing on Monday near Sherwood Island They need to eat 15-20 small fish per day which can require 250-300 dives per day. These ducks not only dive for their dinner, but are among the fastest ducks around having been clocked at up to 80 MPH!
This Merganser was joined a little later by the two Atlantic Brants, a species of goose found primarily along the coast. This pair may well have migrated from the Arctic Circle where they breed. Next came a beautiful pair of Long-tailed Ducks name for their very long, slender tail feathers which, if you look carefully on the male (right) which is difficult to see against the waves. Another diving duck, these powerful beauties are amazing divers and are able to swim down as deep as 200 feet to forage. At this depth the pressure can be as much as almost 100 PSI. During foraging excursions, they spend 3 or 4 times as long underwater as on the surface. (Cornell Ornithology)
Photos By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge.