Today at the Arden Hills Army Training Site Wildlife Observation Area, I saw lots of babies. The trumpeter swan pair have 5 cygnets. The common loon pair have two young. And a whole bunch of wood ducklings were around minus one.
I witnessed an interesting behavior from one of the swans, something I've never seen. The swan attacked a momma wood duck. She disparately tried to distract it from one of the ducklings but the swan was determined. The duckling would submerge for a few seconds but when it popped up the swan would lunge for it. After a few minutes of this comical chase, the swan succeeded. It held the duckling under water and then shook it around like a dog playing with a chew toy. It was an interesting site to behold. Wish I would've had video and/or a 10,000mm lens.
