Nature at its Most Cruel

My photo

This is what I witnessed

I had never seen violence at the park before. It is an oasis of peace and tranquility in a wealthy enclave of New Jersey amid horse country. I go there to walk the dog regularly because there is a short, level path around the pond. The pond is populated with water fowl. The town has added some swans in recent years that seem to be more fertile. I had watched the pair that was there for years lay many eggs on the island but they never hatched. With the introduction of different swans, five babies hatched this year. They were down to three by the time I noticed them, but a fellow walker told me they started with five when I commented I had seen three there a few weeks ago, and now there was only one. We guessed the red tail hawks had picked them up.The geese also hatched six babies this spring. Within a few weeks, they nearly tripled in size.

I had seen the aggressive nature of the swans a few times when they tried to look huge by extending their wings and hissed at my dog who barked at them. Coco is an eight pound chihuahua who is generally friendly, but she is descended from wolves so she knows how to threaten potential prey.

As we were approaching the walking path, I saw a disturbance in the water. There was wild thrashing about and water splashing. An enormous swan was viciously attacking one of the baby…