I was aware of a family of Black-throated divers on the far side of the broad river but they were too far away for anything but ID shots.
My wife and I were watching a Tufted duck with 5 very small ducklings on our side of the river when the water exploded and a Diver emerged near the ducklings. It must have swum across the river underwater.
It immediately launched a frenzied attack on the ducklings trampling them under the water with its feet and stabbing at them with its beak. I was too shocked to take any pictures of the attack but got a few shots before it flew off.
The mother duck flew around frantically but there was no sign of the ducklings and I feared they had all drowned. My wife, who has better hearing than I do, said after a few minutes that she could hear ducklings but I thought it was just wishful thinking. After a while i could hear them too though and then we saw the Tufted duck with 4 of her 5 ducklings, much to our relief.
I did an online search for similar Diver behaviour but came up with nothing. If anyone has any idea what it was we witnessed I'd love to know.
