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Originally Posted by Sparrow Hawk
MJP:"...By the way, those megansers are nasty birds. They eat a ton of fish. My brother used to shoot them when he was a kid..."
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Mergansers don't eat as many (or as large) a fish as Cormorants, which are currently crowding Mergansers out of their natural northeastern lakes; however it's illegal to shoot
any migratory bird, including the Bald Eagle—another fish eater. (Federal Migratory Bird Act of 1917).
If your brother was shooting Mergansers
on the lake, chances are that the expended lead bullets would impact our much-loved Loon population as much as lead fishing sinkers have. Lead sinkers have been banned in New Hampshire to reduce lead poisoning in our population of Loons -- still another migratory bird that eats fish.