Greetings,
I noted on the Virginia listserv two reports of Common Mergansers on the
Potomac River seen from Riverbend Park in Fairfax County. Mike Bowen saw two
hens and a drake there 6 May, and Phil Kenny and Andy Rabin mentioned seeing
some there on 7 May. This is just upstream from Great Falls.
In 2004, Dave Czaplak saw a flightless young Common Merganser a couple miles
upstream of this from Violette's Lock 30 May. Christie Huffman followed
this report up 8 Jun with a sighting of a hen with six young from Riverbend.
This was believed to be the fifth time this species was confrimed breeding in
the Maryland/Virginia region. Anyone that frequents this stretch of the
Potomac might be able to luck into seeing one of these ducks fly into a cavity
on
either shore, or one of the islands. They'll use either a cavity in a tree,
or where a limb has snapped off leaving a cavity, and even a big enough nest
box. Something to keep an eye on over there. If anyone does find a nest,
there's quite a few people that would be interested in documenting it either
in
various journals or the atlas effort in Maryland, so please do pass the
sighting along to one of those folks.
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, Virginia, USA
BlkVulture@xxxxxxx
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