Bronx River Education

The Mergansers are here!

December 11, 2009

While many people await the spring time to see the changes that offer hope, some of us claim the colder weather for coming fortunes. So it is along the Bronx River, as the colder climes force the hooded mergansers for winter homes, and we are lucky to be some of the real estate that they peruse.

This morning at about 9 am, Josue and I were on our way up to get the weekly samples from the northernmost point on the Bronx River in the Bronx, Muskrat Cove. As the name suggests,  what you expect to find are muskrats. Instead, as we tripped along the short piece of land between the parkway and the river, bracing ourselves against the gusts and  the 20 degree weather, we saw a sord of mallards heading upstream.  When we stopped to take a closer look, several hooded mergansers split the sord and came down stream in our direction. Mergansers are very secretive and spook much quicker than mallards, so we immediately backed away from the river in hope of getting a better look.

Measuring about 17 inches in length and waying in at about 1.5 pounds, the hooded merganser fishes for its prey with its head underwater, hoping to catch includes fish, crayfish, frogs, mud crabs, clams, aquatic insects, and insect larvae in its serrated bill. For lodging, they prefer a nice cavity in a log.  To fulfil both of these needs, it is important to preserve natural habitat such as large woody debris and leaf litter. It is believed that  habitat destruction and changing water quality has limited the natural population size.  Parts of the Bronx River retain natural banks and are quite isolated, just how the mergansers like it. The Muskrat Cove section of the river suffered much straightening due to the railroads and both parkway constructions, but the low foot traffic seems to be a selling point for this sextet  The recent oil spill on the river and the following clean up may have disturbed some of the habitat for these attractive visitors, but the three pairs that we saw did not show any outward signs of distress.   Still, it is the knowledge that they are here and will, hopefully, return again that makes it imperative that we keep a close eye on the river, preserve existing habitat, and continue to improve the riparian ecology.DG

PS   There are three males in the picture, and you have to work a bit harder to see the 2 females. They blend in a bit better. While the popular belief is that males ( in general) stand out more to attract females, recent studies have shown that it may be, more importantly, to make sure that males only pick fights with males of their own species.

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