And then there were 2

[lew]

We just spent a week at Quinte and the place is loaded with swans, they're everywhere. We had this little family group living on the shore next to our cabin and they're fun to watch. First few days there were 4 babies, then Wednesday morning one was missing and only 3 babies were there.  Woke up Friday morning and another one had disappeared leaving 2.

Locals said the baby swans are a favorite for the pike and they grab them all the time plus we had plenty of ospreys and hawks flying around so who knows what happened to the little guys.

Nature can be tough sometimes.

 

Edited June 29 by lew

[Spiel]

Indeed Lew, I have witnessed on a few occasions ducklings disappearing beneath the surface to Pike (Bronte Harbour) at the great despair of the parent ducks who were extremely upset about it. There are truly monstrous Pike in the estuaries, inlets and bays of Lake Ontario.

[lew]

Yeah I hear you Chris, a sad thing to see but it's the way things work in the wild.

[Barry Willis]

Very nice Lew, it is always nice to witness first hand birds raising their broods. And yes it is a very sad thing to us the way Mother Nature works.

[CrowMan]

https://youtu.be/2_E4BUt1z8Y?si=0InW7LbPMcMgqcnk

[Barry Willis]

Back up to Spiel, there are two irrigation reservoirs out here in southern Alberta, well several actually these ones I am referring are about 23 miles long each, Lake Macgregor, that I have fished since 1981. The RCMP decided to train their divers there but it was short lived as the divers came up grasping for the ladder on the boat scared half to death because of the size of the pike. My wife's cousin was one of them, pastor of a church, and stated that they were well over 6 to 7 feet long and aggressive towards the divers. Yeah, seems hard to believe but I do. There was a time we were camping at the south end and my wife decided to take a walk out on the berm with our dog for a few casts. (My wife is a very accomplished angler, she'll put most men to shame, she had a good teacher, LOL) I had the video camera on them and first cast she hooked into something huge, she leaned back and set the hook at the same time it came out of the water and she yelled, it's huge and she wasn't joking. The splash it created totally blocked her and my dog out of the video, width and height. You can make out the fish and the size of it was nothing short of huge. Unfortunately it threw her lure.   

[SirCranksalot]

For some reason I find birds eating fish less disturbing than fish eating birds. Makes no sense---just nature's way. But I'll never go skinny dipping in pike 'infested' waters LOL

[Bernie]

Mink and snapping turtles are also hard on young wildlife around here too. 
Nature can be cruel.