Thursday afternoon, Feb. 1st, there were tons of Common Mergansers in Lake Erie off the Rocky River (western Cuyahoga county) shoreline.  The raft extended at least from Bradstreet's Landing to the mouth of the Rocky River, probably farther east and/or west, but I didn't have time to check it out.  I counted up to 587, then lost count and had to start over again.  Seriously, I confess I'm lousy at estimating large numbers of anything, but there had to be about a thousand, maybe thousands.  If they're still there Friday, perhaps somebody that's better at this than I am can check it out.

I haven't checked the lakefront in several days, so I'm not sure when the mergs arrived.  Just happened to pass by Kensington Oval just east of Rocky River Park around noon armed only with a small pair of misaligned "I don't care if someone steals these" binoculars and noticed a bunch of ducks out there which I was pretty sure were Common Mergs.  At this time there was little wind, a thin ice glaze was forming near the shore, and the ducks were in somewhat close.

  When I returned with Ann about 2:45 PM, the wind had picked up from the south, blowing the ice further off shore and the ducks with it.  But now I had my 15x45 image stabilizing binoculars and could clearly see the huge number of Common Mergansers, about 75% males.  The next most abundant duck was Common Goldeneye, about 200.  There were some Red-breasted Mergansers and about 20 or so of the Buffleheads that always hang out there. There may have been other duck species but practically everything I laid my eyes on was a Common Merg.  At 5:00 PM I checked Bradstreet's Landing and there was a large raft there.  The best viewing was not at Rocky River Park itself but from either Bradstreet's Landing or Kensington Oval looking toward the breakwall at the mouth of the Rocky River.  I know ducks have wings but I hope they decide to stick around for a while.

John and Ann Edwards
Rocky River


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