Merganser Magic on The Isle of Arran 22nd December 2019

We have taken ourselves off to the Isle of Arran for this Christmas and New Year, renting our favourite cottage at Catacol, a tiny hamlet which lies on the quieter and wilder northwestern side of the island, overlooking the Kilbrannan Sound and across to Kintyre. It is remote and quiet and suits us just fine.

At night no un-natural sound disturbs the peace, We can lie in bed and listen to the sea lapping at the stony shore less than fifty metres from our window, through which we watch a million stars in a sky untroubled by artificial light of any sort.

The western side of the island is rocky for the most part, relatively unpopulated and is a favourite habitat for wintering Red breasted Mergansers which are present on Arran in large numbers, nationally significant numbers in fact, scattered in pairs or small groups all along the deserted winter coastline. Resident birds are joined by migrants that come from Iceland and Fenno Scandia  to spend the winter here. 

Red breasted Mergansers are slim, long bodied seaducks that live on small fish that they capture underwater with their bright red, uptilted bills, the mandibles serrated to allow them to seize their slippery prey firmly and give no chance of escape. The most characteristic and prominent feature of both sexes is an unkempt tuft of spiky feathers on their crown, that imparts to them a certain eccentricity and devil may care schtick

The male is quite dashing with an iridescent bottle green head that looks black at any distance, a white neck band and streaked breast of cinnamon brown. The upperparts are black with a prominent white gash of feathers along each side and a series of white mirrors.The flanks are silvery grey with fine vermiculations.Their legs and feet as crimson as their eyes.

In comparison the female is dull with a chestnut brown head and overall grey body plumage

The slim forms of the mergansers dot the sea close to shore as they hunt for fish. At this time of year many are paired but there are occasional groups of males frantically displaying to a female even though she has already selected her mate.

I found such a group consisting of three males, competing for a female who already had a mate, the couple stoically ignoring the three suitors as they contorted their bodies in display to the female or chased after each other, seemingly more intent on stopping their rivals rather than impressing the female. Only occasionally would they stop chasing each other to dip and stretch head and body into an extraordinary contortion as they briefly remembered the main purpose of their presence.

The display of the male is entertaining but brief, lasting only a few seconds, as he extends his head and neck upwards with bill held open, bobbing his breast and lower neck below the water while at the same time raising his posterior clear of the water but with  tail depressed, He then continues to swim as close to the female as he can get before indulging in another of these rapidly executed convulsing, curtseying movements, And so it continued at random intervals.

It was rather comical watching the amorous drakes endlessly chasing each other, as well as the female, but all to no avail. Two males appeared obsessed with getting the better of each other, with one paddling frantically to get near the female while the other male would attempt to head it off by paddling equally frantically towards its rival, eventually charging through the water towards the other which fled but refused to give up and returned time and again to try its luck, only to be forever  rebuffed by the other. Although they came close these encounters never resulted in physical contact, only theatening with an opened bill and an aggressive rush through the water. 

The female would dive with her partner, whether to feed or get away from the suitors I could not tell but such was their ardour the suitors immediately followed her underwater. What occured there I was unable to know but all the birds quickly resurfaced and the frantic chasing on the surface would begin again.

I watched for some time as the three suitors endlessly tried to entice the female away from her partner or chased one another. The female was having none of it. Having selected her partner she was content while mayhem carried on around her.

I left them on a grey sea, being churned into a minor localised turbulence by the amorous males.