Cuter than a bag of hammers?
No, that doesn’t sound quite right, even though it’s definitely accurate.
However they should be described, this is the highest duckling-to-responsible-adult ratio I’ve ever seen. But Minnesotan photographer Brent Cizek captured a mother merganser with 50 ducklings. Some likely born in, the article explains, and some likely wandered in. Lucky mom!
Thanks to Marilyn Smith for the link to Brent Cizek.
If they were a kindergarten class going on an outing, they’d all have to be holding onto a rope and swimming two-by-two.
Jim T
Jim – Hahaha. With the rope in their beaks, I guess . . .
Cutest thing I’ve seen today — but the day is young!
We have two nesting ducks on our Condo pond out back. They start with 4-5 little-ins each and the seagulls come and pluck them up and eat them! or ?
We now have 2 nesting geese pairs, or else they are children from last year… hell of a mess they make
on the circling walking paths around the pond.
Barbara – Yeah, between the gulls and the crows, ducklings have a tough go of it. And yeah, the geese are big poopers.
Re the seagulls. And the crows. The sheer beauty of nature is sometimes paralleled by its mindless cruelty.
Jim T
Jim – Yes, it looks like that from our perspective, I guess, although I wonder whether it’s right to see human (im)morality in nature any more than it is to anthropomorphize in any other way.
A downing? A feathering? Or perhaps a peeping? I know…a paddling of ducklings!
Ian – 🙂
Last count, Cizek’s photos were capturing up to 75 goslings in that super-mom’s entourage!
Laurna – Amazing! So much for quality time for each little one, eh?