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One of the sweetest subsections of the duck family has to be the sawbills, formally known as mergansers. Mergansers are a family of diving waterfowl in Merginae, the seaduck subfamily of Anatidae. Ironically, only one of these seaducks is truly a seafarer, the others favoring rivers and lakes. The name ‘merganser’ is said to have [...]

Winter at Point Lookout, the easternmost point of land on the south shore of Long Island, New York, before one reaches Jones Inlet, can provide wildlife watchers with a plethora of pleasing options.  One of my favorites species to see at Point Lookout since the first time I saw them there has been the gaudy [...]

Though most people probably have only heard of eiders in relation to eiderdown pillows, the Common Eider is a bird well worth getting to know for more than its warm, insulating feathers.  Somateria mollissima is a seaduck that breeds colonially in the far north across North America, Europe, and Siberia (it is in the far [...]

The Black Scoter Melanitta americana, called the American Scoter by some and Melanitta nigra by others*, is a large seaduck rather readily identified by the large, shockingly-bright-yellow knob on the male’s bill that stands out amazingly well against the all-black plumage that gives the bird its common name.  The female is dressed in more muted [...]

When winter rolls around and most of our breeding birds have departed for points south, we on North America’s temperate shores turn our attention away from the trees and toward the water. Winter means waterfowl. While any river, lake, or pond might harbor a greater abundance of ducks, geese, and swans, the excitement isn’t all [...]