Many times in recent months we would sit in our wooden chairs at the edge of the frozen pond and listen to the eerie sounds of the ice - long, low moans and groans punctuated by gunshot cracks and rippling waves of protest under its own weight. Ice out, on the other hand, is a silent process heralded by the reappearance of water around the edges followed first by a gradual retreat and then a sudden absence. The Common Mergansers stopped by yesterday to sit on the edge of the retreating ice and to eat, rest, and play on their way to breeding grounds in Canada. Ice out is another welcome rite of spring in all places with lakes, ponds, and rivers where winters are cold enough to bind them with ice each year. And it feels to me like the ice has gone out of my body as well.

Common Mergansers were the most numerous of at least seven species of ducks observed on the pond yesterday. Mallards, Buffleheads, Ring-necked Ducks, Wood Ducks, Red-breasted Mergansers, Common Goldeneyes joined them not to mention a celebratory flyover of Canada Geese. They are all heading north to nest and breed though luckily for us a few will decide to make their summer home on our pond. If it wasn’t for the ice, I suspect some would stay here all year long - but like me they have no interest in ice fishing.

Common Mergansers are the largest of the three North American merganser species and also the largest among all of the inland ducks. In order to find food, ducks either dabble or dive. Dabbling ducks like the familiar mallard feed by dipping their mouth in the water as they swim or by flipping end up to immerse their entire head. Their legs are further forward on their bodies making walking easier, and they can take off directly from the water. Diving ducks dive fully underwater for their food. Their legs are placed further back making walking awkward and difficult, and they usually require a running start to take off from the water. But the natural world, if full of nothing else, is full of exceptions. So dabblers can dive and divers will dabble at times. Common Mergansers are among the diving ducks.