{"id":8030,"date":"2013-06-07T09:30:27","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T16:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=8030"},"modified":"2013-06-07T09:30:27","modified_gmt":"2013-06-07T16:30:27","slug":"mergansers-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=8030","title":{"rendered":"Merganser&#8217;s warning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The merganser&#8217;s warning: don&#8217;t accept a ride from a stranger.<\/p>\n<p>This posting reads a bit like an animal story written for children: heavy on lessons of human behaviour; skimpy on knowledge of animal behaviour. Certainly, the captions represent my interpretation, but the event was witnessed by three people and two cameras. Further, the pictures are presented in the order they were taken.<\/p>\n<p>Mommy merganser has taken her eight chicks out to expose them to the delights and dangers of the pond.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8032\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/merganserfamily130606cs.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As is often the case, some chicks hitch a ride on mommy&#8217;s back.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8036\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/merganserfamily130606as2.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Danger approaches from out on the pond: another female merganser. It is unclear why mommy should see this as a threat, but the approaching female has no chicks of her own and may well want to adopt some of mommy&#8217;s.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8033\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/merganserF130606s.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Certainly, mommy merganser is not going to even allow the possibility. She attacks with great vigour. She drives off the other female, and has to do so twice.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8035\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/merganserchase130606as.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Returning to her own brood, one can almost hear her say: &#8220;I have just protected you from being kidnapped.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8034\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/merganserfamily130606bs.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The family retires to a safe place: &#8220;Remember, you can accept a ride from me, but never from a stranger.&#8221;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8031\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/merganserfamily130606ds.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The merganser&#8217;s warning: don&#8217;t accept a ride from a stranger. This posting reads a bit like an animal story written for children: heavy on lessons of human behaviour; skimpy on knowledge of animal behaviour. Certainly, the captions represent my &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=8030\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8030"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8045,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions\/8045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}