Outside the breeding season, goosanders are usually wary birds, liable to take flight at the first inkling of an approaching human threat. Not so the females when they have a raft of dependent ducklings, incapable of flight, in their care: then, all-powerful maternal instinct triumphs.
We surprised her as we crossed the narrow footbridge over the River Wear. She had nine ducklings, not long out of their hollow-tree nest, and now they were trapped between us and a low waterfall that tumbled over a rocky ledge. In winter, she would have flown away in an instant, but now she would not even swim her way out of trouble. Her ducklings, as buoyant as corks, could not swim up the waterfall and were constantly swept downstream towards us by the force of its flow. A goosander in a state of high anxiety, swimming in circles with her charges huddled around her, climbing on to her back.
