backyard dinosaur #6 a quick tale...

today's backyard dinosaurs started off as a random bird snap shoot, and turned into an epic tale of life and death and more life...

i spotted a mother mallard duck and her cute little chicks, and was trying to snap some nice shots of them. however mommy duckie did not want me anywhere near her babies. fair enough i guess, but this would lead to the upcoming drama... for despite all the other stuff around us, momma duck decided i was the scariest thing around even though i was just taking pictures from a distance (i love my new 20x zoom camera!), so she missed the greatest threat to her ducklings...

a minute or two after i started following the ducks, a magpie showed up, and started hovering VERY close by mamma duck and her ducklings. the magpie (i think a female as well... my reasoning for this will be clear at the end) was acting very predatory. i would know too... if you don't believe me just look at its stance in my picture here, not too hard to imagine a raptor looking the same way before a kill!

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moments after i took this picture (seriously a second at most!) the magpie pounced one of the ducklings, grabbed it by the neck and flew off with it. mamma sort of tried to defend it, but because she'd been so busy worrying about me, she was in the wrong spot and couldn't really do anything.

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my first reaction was shock. then i felt sorry for the poor duckling, and by extension its mother who was now clearly very stressed and confused.

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i quickly came to see the magpies as evil, and watching around me the villains were everywhere. the commotion caused by the ducknapping had empowered every magpie in the area, and half a dozen of them were now making plays to try and grab their own baby birds.

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less than a minute after the duckling incident i snapped this picture of a canadian goose warding off a probing magpie (the gooslings can be seen just behind the goose). the blighters were everywhere.

i was beginning to really side with all the poor water fowl, when wandering around the bend of the pond i encountered the cause of the magpies actions...

the magpies had their own chicks. they to were mammas and their offspring themselves needed food. despite the ducklings and gooslings not being nicest source, they were providing for these baby magpies...

i suddenly had a new respect for the event i had witnessed. there was no good guys or bad guys. the duck wasn't necessarily a victim. both sides had needs and wants, and though these may infringe on the others, they were both entitled to try and meet them.

so despite the poor duckling giving up its life, its death had allowed the next generation of magpies to carry on (at least for now...).

the cycle of life, i think one might call this.