Flying Underwater

One spring, as the north end of the Lake of the Woods began to thaw, I headed out into the open water in my canoe. The distance I could go was limited by the ice. Where there was the slightest current, that was where the ice melted first.

As I explored the sections of open water, I noticed a single duck swimming some distance away. When I paddled towards it, the duck moved away ahead of me. The channel slowly narrowed, until it was no more than six feet wide.

Since it was a duck that I was not familiar with, I kept paddling slowly towards it in the hope of identifying it.. As the distance narrowed, the duck suddenly found that it no longer had enough open water to take off in.
I expected it would hop up on the ice and take off from there.

To my surprise, the duck simply dived underwater and disappeared. Because of all the ice, the only open water was behind my canoe, so I looked down into the water to see if I could find the duck. Within a few seconds I saw the duck about ten feet below my canoe and it was moving swiftly through the water by using its wings as if it were flying.

I had seen many ducks and loons dive under water but they seemed to use their webbed feet to propel themselves. In this instance the duck was flying in the water, similarly to the way it flew in the air, with its wings fully outstretched. I watched as it flew below the canoe and then popped up behind me in the open water. From that point it quickly ran across the surface of the water and took to the air.

The ease with which the bird moved through the water was impressive, as it seemed to move effortlessly but with speed. The entire demonstration took place in a matter of seconds, but I was able to identify it as a male Common Goldeneye.