This afternoon while traveling up river from Sevierville to home in Pittman
Center, I drove the river road, Hwy 416. This river is the same river that
drains Greenbrier in the Great Smoky Mountains and has been the location of
numerous Common Merganser sightings since 2015.
As I neared one of the areas where adult male and female Common Mergansers were
observed in February 2018 (and in several past years) I glanced at the river
and spotted many Common Mergansers in the river, actively feeding and swimming,
moving quickly. I parked and videoed the Common Mergansers move upstream
actively feeding. I took a few still photos as well, but they are shadowed and
poor, so I'm going to try and pull some singles out of the videos. I counted
11 female/immature types, and assuming most were immature.
I don't have any definite conclusion about the provenance of the mergansers,
but my best guess right now is that they did breed on this river this year (but
not in Greenbrier), using this area as home territory. The adult pair was
observed at this location on 1 Feb 2018 and just upstream on two additional
dates in 2018. Only once were they seen near Greenbrier; all other
observations were downstream between milepost 3 and 6 on Hwy 416. Today's
observation was at milepost 5.8. As you may recall, Common Mergansers began
breeding on this river but nearer to the national park in 2015, producing the
first year, failing in 2016 and 2017, and presumably leaving the area after
spending a month or more here in 2018.
The river and the road depart in this area and there is approximately 2 miles
of river that cannot be seen from the main road. If the adult female did
reproduce here, it's possible that the adult female and young mergansers would
not have been visible from the road and their early days and weeks were spent
out of sight of most road travelers.
All of these birds seem to be about the same age, and I assume they are from
the same brood. Furthermore, they showed fairly advanced age supporting the
potential dates and times for potential reproduction here in the late
winter/early spring.
I could not pick out the matron adult female in the group, the birds were
moving so quickly and expertly through the waters of the river.
The other group of Common Mergansers in Sevier County are 14 air miles west in
Metcalf Bottoms, but these have not been reported or searched for this late
summer.
If you are a Facebook user, a video of today's Common Mergansers has been
posted to Birds and Birding in Sevier County.
Keith Watson
Pittman Center TN
Sevier County
