BABIES, AND MORE BABIES

I was near the Boardman River at the South YMCA, when I spotted a pair of Mute Swans floating along in the current.

The riverside was choked with reeds so it was such a challenge to get the swans in focus that I almost missed the real show…three cygnets, or young swans.

The three cygnets were all fuzzy and adorable.  Two were gray and one was white, but eventually they would become all-white, like their parents.

It was peaceful watching the swan family float down the river.  The parents were busy dunking and foraging for aquatic plants underwater.  The cygnets didn’t yet attempt that, instead, floating close beside their parents.

Now, the South Y area has become quite the habitat for birds and waterfowl so I shouldn’t have been surprised when I heard the familiar rising and falling vocalization of a Pileated Woodpecker.  But I was.  I guess I was concerned that it would swoop down and grab one of those baby swans.

I should’ve known from the number of holes Pileated Woodpeckers had put in my trees in Northport, that they feed on ants and insects that they get from dead trees vs. baby swans.   The Pileated looked over at me clicking away with my camera and then flew off.

I took one last look at the three fuzzy cygnets, safe with their parent, and took off too.

And then, when driving the Leelanau Peninsula last weekend, I saw several geese families on the shores of Omena Beach.

Like the cygnets, the goslings were fuzzy and adorable.  There were several geese families present, so I got to see chicks of all sizes.

The young ones were so busy at foraging in the shoreline grasses that I could hardly see their heads.  Regardless, it's one of the joys of springtime…seeing all these young waterfowl.