Red-breasted Mergansers are fascinating birds, and I absolutely love them. I already have a good collection of photos, but there are still many shots I’d like to take, for example, the males displaying.
Last winter, I came across this male that was actively fishing on a lake close to the shore. Often, there’s something wrong with inland Red-breasted Mergansers, but at first I couldn’t see anything unusual about this one.
Only when I zoomed in did I notice it had swallowed a fishing hook with some line still attached. Despite that, it was able to catch and swallow several perch, so quickly that I couldn’t even photograph the action. It stayed for a couple of days and seemed to be in good shape. Let’s hope it survived, and let it be a reminder to us to be careful with what we leave behind in nature.
