Friday, December 22, 2017

My First-ever Sighting of Common Mergansers -- a Pair on the Kamogawa River in Kyoto

Yesterday at around 4 PM, as the sun started slipping down behind tall buildings in the west, I saw a male/ female pair of Common Mergansers on the Kamogawa River, near Demachiyanagi Station in Kyoto on the Keihan Line. They swam out from reeds near the shore, together with a few Mallards and Spot-billed Ducks and Eurasian Wigeons, and were dabbling and ducking underwater to eat something ( I don't know what). They were unmistakably mergansers, male and female. I've seen Smews before, and knew that this pair couldn't be Smews: they were too big -- about the size of Mallards, and the male's head was a solid hood of black/dark green. I felt privileged to see them.

In addition, I saw:

Great Egret. 1

Little Egret. 2

Mallard. 8

Spot-billed Ducks. 6

Eurasian Wigeons. 5

Green-winged Teal. 9

White  Wagtail. 2

Japanese Wagtail. 1Crows. 6

Black Kites. 10

Tree Sparrow. 60


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