BEMIDJI, Minn. — An amateur photographer’s patience paid off with a stunning photo of a female duck followed by dozens of ducklings on a northern Minnesota lake.

Brent Cizek of Bemidji, Minnesota, says he took his tiny boat out on windy Lake Bemidji in late June when he spotted “a big blob of birds.”

Cizek later returned and saw the birds grouped in a circle. As the ducks headed out, Cizek took close to 50 shots – the best showing a common merganser, a freshwater duck, trailed by 56 ducklings in a row.

Cizek says he “knew the image was special.” It’s featured on the National Audubon Society’s website.

Richard O. Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University, told The New York Times that seeing many ducklings together is “an extraordinary sighting.”