We spent one night at our summer cottage. We didn't stay longer, as we were afraid that one of the below would happen:

1. The weather would turn to worse
2. The weather would stay as good as it was

We were almost getting cooked in the cottage, as there is no AC and nearly any ventilation in the cottage. The indoor temperatures are over 30 degrees Celsius and even worse outside in the sun.

My wife came back from a swim when she told me she had seen "some bird" with a bunch of chicks really nearby. I had quickly grabbed my camera and ran to see, but they were already swimming away. I had to run through woods to finally reach them.

There it as. A beautiful flock of birds. According to my expert bird knowledge it's a red-breasted merganser. I'm not 100% about it and according to what I know, they differ a bit in appearance depending on the area you meet them in.

The joy didn't last very long as the birds spotted me.

When I was getting closer to get a better photo, they suddenly panicked and I could hear the mother merganser shout in panic "QUACK QUACK QUACK" and all the chicks took an extremely rapid swim away from the shore.

I had surprised for a nice close shot photo, but as the bastard birds swam further, I couldn't get one. Especially not when I was equipped only with a 85 mm lens instead of my 100-300 mm lens. This is why we can't get nice photos, my wife doesn't allow me to get proper equipment and keep them with me all the time.

This is a cropped photo as they calmed down and continued their swim towards.. whatever. According to information I have, the red-breasted merganser typically lays 4-14 eggs. So why the vast amount of chicks?

It seems they also steal chicks from other merganser mothers. This is to ensure the survival of their own chicks, as possible predator attacks would be likely to hit the chick of someone else.

So instead of a cute story of a lovely duck adopting a bunch of babies, we're watching a baby kidnapper.

To bring you to happy moments, I took some photos of moss covering the stones and some of bilberry bushes in the ground.

Hopefully they will bring you as much joy to you as they did to me.

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_{All photos by me}