Naptime for Mergansers

Mom Merganser has quite the crew this summer. She patrolled along the shoreline with the kids yesterday, hunting minnows in the shallows, and she had at least a dozen with her.

These are strikingly beautiful ducks, with their distinctive rusty brown heads and raggedy crests, their red feet, and long thin orange bills. These bills are serrated, like teeth, to help the duck grab and hold the fish it hunts.

Our mom was on her own today, but it's not uncommon to find that they have pooled their resources, with one parent shepherding multiple classes of youngsters while the other parent is away hunting on her own.

Although they are diving birds, they start out nesting in cavities in trees, or boxes placed near the lake. When the babies are ready to leave the nest, they first have to take the plunge out of the box and down into the water.

Even fishing was a hot job yesterday, in the heat wave, so after foraging along the shoreline at Bondi, the mergansers hove to on an old log in the corner of the bay -- the bit we fondly call 'the Swamp' because it includes a stream, a boggy area, lots of lily pads and old waterlogged trees left over from logging days a century past. It's a great habitat, not just for our wildlife, but for our guests who are looking for wildlife.

One of the logs, just offshore, is just enough above water and just enough away from shore to be the ideal naptime selection of the merganser crowd.

It takes some time for all the kids to get up on the log, with their wide webbed feet, to preen the essential waterproofing oils through their feathers and attend to their grooming, but once everyone is settled, it's nap time.

Except for Mother Merganser, ever vigilant, who keeps watch, enjoying the water washing over her feet and the breeze lifting her crest. And no doubt, enjoying a little quiet time while the kids are all asleep.