Merganserlings

I think this is the 1st time I spotted a Common Merganser mom with her ducklings. 

I see some evidence of the young referred to as "merganserlings", though it doesn't show up in any dictionary. I kind of like this since it implies juvenile ducks for a species of duck that doesn't have "duck" in their name. For non-birders, the 1st sentence of this post raises questions like "how did a merganser acquire ducklings?" or "is this an example of brood parasitism?". Ducklings is the official term for merganser young, though I suspect many birdwatchers would forgive you calling them merganserlings.

It looks like one of the ducklings is actually riding on the back of the mother. I don't think this is common behavior among ducks (possibly because they wouldn't all fit), but other waterfowl like grebes may do it regularly.

With 8 ducklings around her, this is certainly within the range for a Common Merganser brood (6-17 eggs are typically laid), but many times ducklings will switch mothers, so some of these could be ducklings from another Common Merganser. I wonder if this is related to a flocking instinct, and when different ducks meet they tend to congregate around one mother duck rather than remaining with their actual mother. (Since ducklings feed on their own, mother ducks act more like leaders that steer the ducklings out of danger and towards food/shelter, and there's probably not much more effort to raise a couple ducklings versus a couple dozen ducklings.)

May 11, 2022 in the Raritan River
Photo 199459797, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)