Three images of one of the young Hoodies catching/eating dinner:

In these images the young Hoodies aren't so little and so cute any more. They are about five weeks old here and have turned into ferocious hunters/eaters. They feast mostly on large Bullfrog Tadpoles, but also on small fish and Crayfish. They are almost the size of Mom now minus the still developing wing feathers. I suspect though that they will be flying within a few weeks. That's probably a good thing as they must almost be depleting their meal stock in the small pond in which they have resided since day one. There is another adjacent pond and the Ottawa River is also only a few hundred feet away; however, so far the young seem to have ventured onto the shore of the one pond only just far enough to have a sleep on dry land.

Top Image: One of the young has caught a good sized Tadpole.


The Merganser bites down hard on the Tadpole, then vigorously shakes it.


Down the hatch it goes.

I suspect that the seven young Mergansers and Mom each consume at least three to five Tadpoles, fish or Crayfish each day.