One Of Mother Nature’s Little Battles

There are lots of things that go on in mother nature all the time that many of us never see, but this past weekend my son and I witnessed one with a sad outcome.

As you can tell by all the stories I write about the outdoors, my son and I spend a lot of time on the water and in the field.

This past Father's Day weekend was no exception. I wanted to enjoy the outdoors with my son, that was our plan and goal and it was achieved.

After spending a day fishing and kayaking down the Muskegon River Saturday, on Sunday we decided to head over to Diamond Lake to try to get my son his first pike.

As soon as we got the boat in the water, crossed the lake so we could drift down, we got caught in a little rain but nothing like the rain we got the day before.

The birds were still out so I figured the front would blow over and it did. Diamond Lake in Newaygo County has a lot of pike in it. So much they will only let you keep one over 24 inches but you can keep four that are 23 inches or smaller to help control the population. If you don't catch any over 24 inches then you can keep five that are 23 inches or less.

So while my son and I were fishing, off in the distance we could hear a lake loon making that sound they make which is very nice to hear while in the outdoors.

As the lake loon began to get closer, it looked like it had something on its back. Sure enough when it got closer I saw a baby loon sitting up there. I had never seen this before so my son and I were watching the pair as we were casting for a pike.

The mother loon would dive down and catch a minnow and bring it back up for the baby loon. Then the baby would climb back on for a ride and they repeated this for quite sometime.

Then we heard another loon making that beautiful sound and coming closer to the other loons my son and I had been watching.

The second loon also had a young one but it was a bit bigger that the other baby loon we had been watching. Then it happened, the bigger baby loon swam up to the smaller baby loon and began poking it with its beak. The odd thing was, the smaller loon's mother didn't seem to care.

The bigger baby loon pecked and pushed this smaller baby loon all the way until they reached the shore line. Neither of the two mother loons intervened. The bigger baby loon swam back to the mother loons, while the smaller baby loon didn't make the unfortunate battle it did not ask for.

My son is eight years old so this was a little hard to explain and to sit back and witness but this was Mother Nature doing what she does to keep a balance in nature.

The first part of the loon story my son and I will never forget and sadly, the second half of the story we will also never forget.

I guess its true what they say about nature, it's survival of the fittest.