Staff photo by Andy Molloy
Where cracks on the ice emerge each spring Hooded Mergansers descend.

The diving ducks move inland and north as the ice melts on lakes in Maine. The white crest adorning the head of drakes are easy to distinguish from their cousins, the Common Mergansers.

The males will be performing their courtship ritual this spring before mating. The drakes swim in circles around hens pumping their crests, tossing their heads and uttering calls that resemble a frog.

The birds nest in tree cavities like Wood Ducks along water ways.

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