Lunch Time At The Lake

I happened upon this scene this afternoon. Mama was cracking open snails and digging the meat out, while her baby was waiting to get hold of the meat. It was quite a task for the big bird to open up the snail, and every once in a while a black bird would come along and try to steal the food. The baby would go after it aggressively, then go back under her mother. You can see how big the meat was. The mother would pick it up, the baby would snatch it out of her beak, but it was way too big for it to swallow. I took over fifty pictures of this scene. (I am not obsessive.)

This is the same mother and babies I showed for Mother's Day ... but now there are only three babies. Two must have become lunch for and eagle or an otter. How sad.