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I photographed this female Common Merganser in February several years ago at a local pond. It may look like she’s in the process of taking off but she wasn’t. Instead she’s running across the water in an effort to steal a fish from another merganser. Portions of the pond were covered with ice and we can see some of it in the top half of the frame.<\/p>\n I had no idea she was missing a foot until she rose up out of the water to chase the other bird. She seemed to swim and hunt for fish normally and both are pretty neat tricks with one foot missing. She was the epitome of adaptability.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A heavily cropped version of a different photo of her allows us a better look at her stump. It appears to be completely healed and when she was running on the water she was pumping that stump just like she had a foot on the end of it.<\/p>\n And guess what? In one of those unusual cases where an individual bird is easily identified from year to year she showed up at the pond the following winter.<\/p>\n That bird was a survivor.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are survivors and then there are survivors!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/common-merganser-7222-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"common-merganser-7222-ron-dudley\\"")
1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 2500, Canon 7D,\u00a0Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/common-merganser-7223-big-crop-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"common-merganser-7223-big-crop-ron-dudley\\"")
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