Spotted! Hooded Mergansers
While our furry friends are extending their break beyond the official University's Christmas Break, other campus neighbors are filling in during their hiatus. Spotted at St Mary's Lake, they appeared to be common water fowl, but to the trained eye they were more than just your common duck. Who was spotted? Well, Hooded Mergansers. Startled, a pair of Hooded Mergansers, male (white headed) and female (brown headed) swam away quickly from low, overhanging brush by the shoreline, eventually diving into the lake and disappearing. This specie usually migrates, but given our unseasonable warm winter, this pair decided to stay. On being spotted, the white Hooded Merganser non-verbaled, well, nothing because he swam away. Pity.
