Common Merganser

Was this Common Merganser telling us the size of the fish he saw? Or maybe the snapping turtle he scared off? As largish ducks with a wingspan slightly under a yard, that would represent a fairly large fish or turtle. Most ornithologists though would probably interpret this as the duck drying his wings after a dive in the water - not unlike non-ducks that dive underwater - rather than boasting about a fish/turtle sighting [1].

I've mentioned before that despite being ducks, the name merganser basically means waterfowl (mergus) goose (anser) [2]. In Britian they're called Goosanders. I initially thought the "ander" part was a variation on "anser", making their name essentially "goose goose". That appears to be incorrect though, with Goosander being a word combined from "goose" and "gander", using both the female and male names for the birds [3].

May 10, 2023 at Delaware Raritan Canal
Photo 282314467, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

[1] With oily, water-resistant feathers, ducks (and geese and swans) probably take less time to dry off after diving than most other birds.

[2] At least ducks and geese are fairly close relatives; "waterfowl ostrich" would be an even more inappropriate name.

[3] Given these are ducks, if you're going to combine the female and male names together, might I suggest drake + duck = druck or drack? 

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