Birds of a Feather....

....Flock Together, right? 

Then why do I keep seeing a lonely little Merganser cruising around by himself..aimlessly, not fishing..just paddling around the shore looking rather lost....? 

All summer, we have had a group of Mergansers hanging out in our back bay, cruising our shoreline, hunting for fish.... Late this afternoon, there they were again, just in time for a blip - a happy little Merganser family out together for a stroll, and in search of dinner.  I was hoping my lone duck was one of them, but it was impossible to tell - they all look alike! 

Then just before dark, I saw my little guy out back floating around all by himself; he cruised around the point at the end of the island  and then swam around for a while out front by the little beach..He seemed to have nothing on his agenda.. just "hanging out"...all alone. 

I would like to think that he is part of the family and just needs some private time to  himself...or maybe he is a bit of a discipline problem and gets sent away for Time Outs...frequently! I just hope he has not been ostracized in some way...I am familiar with the "lone wolf", but is there such a thing as a "lone duck", sent away from the group to fend for himself?

I am grateful for the appearance of the Mergansers; I needed a change of blip subject matter, but was not having any luck. Already today, I had unwittingly spooked the heron from his favourite spot sending him into flight before I could even aim the camera...and had stalked two very active woodpeckers but to no avail. The turtle was lurking down by the dock  - I know he was - I could see his bubbles...but he didn't surface. The hummingbirds were way too fast for me ...so it looked as if I would have to post yet another sunrise or maybe a cute chipmunk blip - again - but then along came the ducks!  And such handsome ducks they were...and ever so photogenic.