Common Merganser

On 17 March 2021, this drake Common Merganser swam up Capitol Lake in Olympia. As it travelled, the drake spent more time apparently “snorkeling,” with his head under water. Normally these mergansers dive for their prey (small fish, a wide variety of invertebrates, and even frogs, small mammals, birds, and plants) (Pearce et al. 2020). Mergansers are known to forage on the surface and even upend like a Mallard, but the afore-cited authors do not appear to mention swimming with their head under the water.