Joe Kahlo
Minnesota-based wildlife photographer Brent Cizek managed to capture an adorable shot of a mother duck followed by more than 50 cute fuzzy ducklings.
After a ride with his tiny boat on the lake Bemidji, he then steered it towards the shoreline and spotted what seemed to be a small team of ducks.
When he edged nearer he could see there was a mother duck and few ducklings. As he got closer that few turned into a few dozen.
“The closer that I got, the more my heart started racing as I had never witnessed something like this before,” Cizek explained.
“I knew that this was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity, so I immediately tried to fire off as many shots as I could, just hoping that one of the photos would turn out.”
He captured this moment where the mother was followed by the brood 50 cute fuzzy ducklings when he went to see them the following month, he counted 76!
After posting his photos on social media, The Audubon Society took notice and that meant lots of people started heading to Lake Bemidji to see the team of ducklings!
While 50 is definitely on the high end, such big brood counts are actually pretty common, says Kenn Kaufman, field editor for Audubon.
This is at least partly because ducks often lay their eggs in the nests of other ducks. In fact, Kaufman says a female duck will have a nest of her own and also make her way over to another nest or two to drop off a few eggs.
