Merganser Heaven (Cattle Pond)

Checked out a few water holes during our Thanksgiving week deer hunt to see if any ducks were moving.. Sat at this cattle pond a few mornings and it was buzzing nonstop with groups of Mergansers flying in, feeding for a bit then flying out. The hole has such a quick dropoff and is so deep that there's little vegetation and has clear water so I assume they were diving for crayfish at the bottom. I held off on downing any Mergs as I shot a pair last season only to discover that they weren't the best eating bird (understatement). So until I check some ducks off my mount list and want to mount one the Mergansers are safe from me.

 A unique spot that is a stones throw from a huge wetland- has potential to be a good location to encourage some plants along the edges and see if any other ducks can be pulled in..

After sitting at this pond a few mornings and not seeing any sign of gators it seemed to be the perfect spot to do some retriever training and even hop into during the first weeks of deer season when it is unbearably hot, being so deep it surely holds water during the driest seasons. That is until I walked in for a look in the afternoon and this nice sized lizard was sunning on one of the few open spots.. wasn't so much surprised of the gator as I was that he'd been there previously unknown to me with zero vegetation to hide in.. glad my dad talked me out of letting Macy hop in when I was sure it was gator-free!

The steady groups of mergansers pouring in/ out was a good refresher for Macy on keeping still even when birds land in the water.. wish I had a camera setup to take some pics of such pretty birds..

While sitting in the deer stand I googled away on my phone for some info about Mergansers and what they are doing while in Fla.. They are one of the farthest traveling waterfowl, are notorious for laying eggs in active woodduck nests unbeknown to the hen woodduck, and a number of recent wildlife photography contests were won by pictures of Mergansers.. 

The following Monday I was back to the normal routine. After my first morning class I have a break that I use to catch up on any emails/ projects, if the weathers nice I'll sit by a little pond right outside my class building.. after sitting at this spot for a few minutes I hear some splashing, and see about a dozen Mergansers on this pond, with the hooded drakes chasing eachother and courting the hens. I fully thought I was hallucinating, seeing these rare waterfowl by the dozens even when I'm in a large city..