As John has stated, I too remember the massive flocks of mergansers
from the 80's.  Below are numbers of Red-breasted Merganser from my
November census from Kelleys Island which has always been run between
the 13th and the 21st since 1997:

1997  -  1500
1998  -  4100
1999  -  2907
2000  -  12923
2001  -  43
2002  -  10923
2003  -  5475
2004  -  181
2005  -  158
2006  -  19112
2007  -  271
2008  -  187
2009  -  68

13 year Average = 4448 indivudals

This is just a snap-shot but numbers are nothing like the 80's.  Still
this year the "big" flocks have not appeared off Kelleys Island.  I
haven't observed 100+ this fall from the island.  As you can see from
the above data, three years of high counts may skew the numbers
greatly or several years of low counts.  Any way one looks at it,
something has happened to the mergansers which migrate through Lake
Erie.

--
H. Thomas Bartlett
Tiffin, Ohio
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