Reading your note reminded me of the many times I birded down in Monterey
California and watched Red-breasted Mergansers feeding with Surf Scoters. I
have a quite a few photos of the groups. There were also a couple of times
when Eared Grebes would be in the group but generally just the mergansers
and the scoters. It seems to me that they periodically have overlapping
prey items which causes them to feed together at times.

It is interesting to me that I usually see competition for food between
individuals of the same species instead of between species. Another aspect
of Gause's Rule on Non Competition.

Jim

At 09:50 AM 12/20/99 -0800, Betsy Jones wrote:

>During a stay on Whidbey Island over the weekend, I watched, over the course
>of two days, a pair of red-breasted mergansers fish and hang out with a
>bunch (for lack of a better term) of surf scoters. They all seemed to be
>very comfortable with this arrangement, synchronizing their dives and
>generally acting like one big happy family. What accounts for this? It
>seemed very odd to me, but maybe not.
>

Jim Rosso
Issaquah, Washington
Home - 425-392-8440

mail:jrosso at mediaseek.com