>Alvaro Jaramillo wrote:

> I find it curious that most of the reports of staging mergansers
>have mentioned that more males are involved than females.

What was probably the gathering of Common Mergansers reported last week by
Michael Price has now moved into the Reifel Refuge on Westham Island. I'm
learning from Tweeters that maybe I should count numbers rather than just
species but I must admit to having only estimated the number I saw. On 11th
February there were 50+ males and "some" females; the males were so obvious
from afar that I counted them more accurately. On 14th February there were
75+ males and about the same number of females.


Eric Greenwood
Vancouver, B.C.
egreenw at helix.net