Barry Kent MacKayArt by Barry Kent MacKay
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In this section are copies of original works of art. All of them are dedicated to helping us live according to unconditional love and compassion, which is the foundation of our peaceful means of bringing true and lasting peace to all of God's creatures, whether they are human beings or other animals.

Common Mergansers (Mergus merganser)


Common Mergansers (Mergus merganser)
(Artwork - 061)
Common Mergansers
(Mergus merganser)

In English-speaking countries outside North America this species is called the Goosander. They are indeed relatively common across the northern hemisphere. The area north of where I live, in Ontario, Canada, is filled with small and not-so-small lakes amid boreal forests, and Common Mergansers nest there in large numbers. Non-birders, seeing the female mergansers with their large broods of babies, often mistake them for loons. It’s pretty hard to paddle a canoe in any of these lakes, even those with lots of cottages, and not eventually see a mother Common Merganser and her brood.

But I’ve chosen to show them later in the year, during migration, on the Atlantic coast, early winter. I don’t often give titles to my paintings, but I did this one. The background is entirely “made up”, but I was thinking of a quiet seaside inlet beach of frozen sand just after a squall had passed through, tossing bits of kelp and wrack ashore, with a small group of Common Mergansers, as I have seen countless times.

This is done entirely in acrylics, on compressed hardboard.

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Copyright © Barry Kent MacKay
Barry describes himself as a Canadian artist/writer/naturalist.
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