8/3/25: The Hunt for the Red-breasted Merganser, part 4

Host: Logan Parker
Producer: Glen Mittelhauser

After being temporarily stranded across Moosehead Lake’s Northwest Cove, Logan set out to Seboomook Island and the conclusion of his multi-trip effort to document Red-breasted Merganser breeding in Maine.

Transcript

After being unexpectedly swept across Moosehead’s Northwest Cove by strong winds and struggling southward on the opposing shore, I was prepared to start my voyage back across the water by paddling out to Seboomook Island.

Passing through a few hundred feet of choppy lake water, I quickly slipped behind the island where the water surface was relatively smooth. A lone Common Loon fished in this calm harbor, disappearing below the black waters and returning with a small fish clasped in its bill. I explored the western shores of the small island chain. Kinglets, robins, and sparrows sang from within the trees awash with the light of the waning day. I paddled towards the southernmost point of the southernmost island, from which I planned to make my crossing as soon as the winds would permit. While there were a handful of camps on the northern portions of the islands, signs of human activity were fewer here. Large boulders were strewn in the water, some rising into the air to form narrow channels, while others lurked just beneath the surface, slick with green and brown algae. Rounding a bend, I carefully picked a path through the stony waters and searched for a sheltered vantage from which I could wait and scan for lake birds. 

Two birds hauled out and resting on a sunny boulder caught my attention: a pair of Common Merganser hens. They untucked their bills, dropped into the water, and then took flight south. I watched them disappear before turning the kayak into a narrow, sheltered bay between the main island and two smaller ledges. Just as I started to settle in, I spotted movement ahead and so pushed myself forward with a few gentle strokes for a better look. Another merganser hen. Indeed it was… but not a Common Merganser. This bird was more slender, thinner billed, and lacked the conspicuous white chin patch of that species. At long last, I had located another, or quite possibly the same, Red-breasted Merganser in Moosehead Lake. 

Within an instant, she had darted back around the rock for cover, but unlike every other merganser I’d seen that day, she did not fly away. This behavior made me think she might not be alone. I quickly readied my camera in anxious anticipation that she might round the island and come back into view. Minutes passed and she did not appear. Creeping forward with gentle strokes, I worked my way around the sloping rock only to get hung up on a pebbly strand beneath the surface. I struggled loose and slid around the boulder island where I had seen her moments ago, finding the small channel now empty. She could only have eluded me by either diving beneath the surface or else circling back towards my original vantage on the opposing side of the small island. Venturing out past the southern end of the island put me back into the wind, but quickly rounded back into the lee. As I bobbed in the choppy water, I spotted the hen… and she wasn’t alone. Six downy young birds streamed behind her as she headed east. I could now confidently say that, yes, Red-breasted Mergansers do breed on Moosehead Lake. Now I just needed to collect the evidence needed to support my observations once shared with the project. 

We were 50’ or so distant when I readied my camera. At that very moment, the hen plunged out of sight. Her brood sounded off in a chorus of chirping “peep” calls and circled about in search of their mother. To my surprise, the group streamed right towards me and passed by so near that I nearly could have reached out and touched one. Instead, I took several photographs as they settled into a pocket of still water between two rocks. Not wanting to cause any more distress than my presence had already created, I moved back east around the larger island. As luck would have it, the hen resurfaced only a short distance away, where she was well-lit in the evening light. She dove below the surface once more, resurfaced, and then flew back around the point towards her young. I retreated to a windless gap along the shore and began excitedly sharing the news with friends, family, and fellow Atlas staff. All the while, the winds wound down and the open waters off the south end of the island smoothed. The time to cross had at last arrived.

Keeping a wide berth, I passed back around the south end of the island and briefly observed the now reunited family sheltered beneath some overhanging vegetation. With a few heavy strokes, I was out from the protection of Seboomook Island and gliding with relative ease towards the outflow of Williams Brook, buoyant with the effort’s fulfilling conclusion. 

I reached the launch site just after 8 o’clock and was headed homeward, exhausted, but now grateful for the misadventure. Had I not been blown off course, the species would not have been definitively documented as a breeding bird during this generation of the Maine Bird Atlas. In many ways, this persistent search for the Red-breasted Mergansers was the perfect bookend for my five years of work gathering breeding observations for the project, over the course of which, I had honed a great many field skills and gained ample experience strategizing, troubleshooting, and improvising. And while I cherish the personal growth made over the course of the effort, I can only assume so much credit. Good fortune has always played its own significant role. 

Field observations result from convergence of several variables, most outside of the observers control. All we can do is interpret the information at our disposal to try and put ourselves in “the right place at the right time” to observe something of value. I had joined the Maine Bird Atlas field team from a desire to contribute to our knowledge of Maine’s birdlife and support their conservation. For five years, I’ve had the privilege to travel the state widely and observe the region’s birdlife intimately, often finding myself in “the right places at the right times”. The opportunity to track down and definitively confirm the breeding status of the Red-breasted Mergansers, though a true challenge, was an immensely gratifying experience. I hope that my experiences will inspire others to pursue their own efforts to study and document other elusive bird species… though preferably without any subsequent maroonings.