Mergansers are another one of those birds that I have known about for a long time and yet had not seen in person until I started this challenge. Aside from that, one of the big things I like about the Birds of NH challenge is that every time I photograph something new I get to learn about it. It may be common knowledge to some but I did not know that there were actually several types of mergansers, three of which can be seen in New Hampshire. While the first merganser sighting for me was the hooded merganser, the common merganser made an appearance just two weeks after.

As these birds were still very new to me, I at first mistook this female common merganser below as another hooded merganser. A group of the hooded variety were actually swimming nearby at the time.

She was very far away in the middle of a channel and diving for fish. It was not until I got home and took a closer look at the images that I noticed the differences. Both the hooded and common varieties are common in the area and so I am sure that I will be seeing a lot of them during my days out. As small fish make up the bulk of the common merganser’s diet, I will be looking to getting a good action shot of one after a successful catch.