November 22, 2020: An Avian Love Triangle

It had been a quiet week on the lake until yesterday, when on a morning walk mother nature presented me with one wonder after another.  The most dramatic was the interaction of three Hooded Mergansers: two males in a lengthy encounter over a single female.

A trio of Hooded Mergansers

When I first saw them, the two males were circling around each other with the female some distance away.

It didn't take long before the action started, with one of the males swimming aggressively at the other.

I would assume the aggressor is the current mate of the female, trying to force off a would-be courter of his girl, but there's no way to be sure.  Un-mated mergansers will pair up in the fall and stay together through the winter months.  

After a few surface attacks, the fight became more animated and resulted in airborne maneuvers.  

The flight was short, with both of them circling back toward the object of their affection.

That swoop in the water shows their flight path.

But as they got close to her the battle was on again with one turning to push the other away.

This cycle repeated several times.  

After each foray they made their way back towards the female.  It makes me wonder what she is thinking.  Is she flattered?  Is she watching to see if she wants to pick a new mate?  Or is she just appalled by the whole ordeal?

She doesn't seem to be paying any attention to their antics.

Just looking away.

At any rate, after a stretch of this behavior, she either got fed up with it or decided that the distraction of one of their fights was a good time to take off and make her escape.

Watching, waiting for the right moment to make her exit.

In the foreground of the next photo you can see the wake from where she took off in the opposite direction just before the guys landed:

But she didn't get far - both males were immediately off in hot pursuit.

Running on the water for take-off.

Airborne!

It didn't take long for them to catch up to her.

And with that, they were gone, sure to continue their challenge elsewhere on the lake.  We'll never know who was threatening and who was defending, but it was fascinating to watch the competitive forces of nature in action.

Farther along my walk I saw, way far out in the lake, what I thought was my first loon sighting in many days.  It's behavior told me it had caught a large fish, too large to swallow alive, and the loon was playing with it, tiring it out enough to swallow it.  A picture in the low light was just good enough to show this was in fact the case, and a little flash of orange indicates the bird was going to  have sunfish for breakfast.

It's an awful photo, but you can see how big the fish is.

It also looks as though it may be a merganser rather than a loon, but it's too grainy to be sure.  It seems like all our resident loons are now gone.

A few other observations from my walk:  First, the Witch Hazel have started to bloom.

A witch hazel blossom

This is the only plant I know of that blossoms in late fall, almost winter.

Second, the Hobblebush buds for next spring are already in place.

Next year's hobblebush viburnum.

Another unusual plant behavior: putting out buds in the fall.  Both of these have stories behind them, but they will have to wait for another day.

And finally, frost on the goldenrod.

Frosty goldenrod.

Even in November there's something new to see.