Possibility?

  Just before noon, I heard the familiar honking of geese as I was out painting some flower pots.  It is not unusual to hear the geese as they fly to and from my cousin's house to the west.  She sets out a fine buffet of feed for the critters so the geese feel welcome to dine there.  The honking lasts only a few moments as the geese fly past the Little Bayou House.  This time, however, the honking did not cease.  It kept on and on until I decided to meander down the hillside to see what was up with the neighborhood critters.

  Thankfully, nothing appeared to be wrong with the geese so I suppose they were either "taking the slow route" or were scouting out potential nesting sites.  In a way, I hope it is the latter since the pair headed up the Bayou.  It would be nice to have little goslings about the place.

  I watched as the geese disappeared into the marsh.  Baby geese soon, maybe?  One can only hope!

Coming Cold

   Earlier I had to just take a break from cleaning out the greenhouse.  Exhaustion demands such, at times.  When the roof and windows blew out due to hurricane winds, it left all sorts of stuff inside that did not need to be there.  It was time to take a break from clearing the yard and clear the building. I started at daybreak and worked on through lunch before emptying it.  With it being, more or less, open to the elements, critters have taken a liking to the space.  That meant that I had to "decritter" it, as well.  It was during that break that I strolled down to the marsh edge.  I needed the peace that only the Bayou waters can bring.  While there, I noticed a flock of geese flying over the Bay.  They were headed west.  While a lot of folks look for the geese to be migrating before winter sets in, these geese were not foretelling the onset of cold weather.  They were merely heading to supper provided by my cousin, Michelle.  These fine feathered friends will not leave the area for parts unknown.  They stay here year round.  Those fat bellies give them no reason to go anywhere!

  The clearing of the greenhouse does foretell of a cold snap.  I had today (and today only) to get the place somewhat repaired for the plants.  The rains have settled over the Bayou and will be here for the next four days.  Then, we are looking at the first frost of the season.  That frost, while not bad on the vegetable garden, will be harsh on the few tropical, potted plants that survived the hurricane.  The Night Blooming Cereus plants will need special care for the next few months.  

  The greenhouse is as best that I can get it due to the amount of work that would involve to totally repair it.  My attempts will have to suffice.  A tarp roof may not be the best option but it will keep the plants from suffering frost burn.  Perhaps, this will buy me a little time before any hard freezes hit us.  Work...always work.  

The Bayou Geese!

   Early this afternoon, a stroll in the gardens was in order.  Work had come to a cease simply because of the heat.  Strolling, however, is always a good thing as there is plenty of shade from the old oak trees.  Just as I was entering the shady nook near the back of the greenhouse, I heard an odd sound in the Bayou. Hmm, one hears tales of banshees, will-o-the-wisps and hobgoblins but this sounded like none of those.   It was a far sweeter sound!  Geese!  For others, this may be an everyday thing but, for me, it is a happy occasion to find the geese swimming about the shallow waters of the Bayou.  I decided to ease my way down near the marsh to see just how many were there.

  Oh, my!  There were dozens of the fine looking critters taking baths in one bend of the winding waterways.  Such splashing! Such honking!  The geese were having a grand old time this afternoon.  They knew how to beat the heat!  I watched the antics of the flock for about twenty minutes and noticed that there were lots of juveniles in the bunch.  That gives me hope that this flock is flourishing.  Eventually, they all congregated in one open spot.  After much conversing, they took flight and headed west of here.  I knew exactly where they were going.  My cousin lives about a quarter of a mile to the west and she puts out a fine buffet for the ducks and geese.  My fine feathered friends were heading to dinner. 

  While the visit with the geese was short lived, it thrilled me to see them here.  Perhaps they will take a liking to the Bayou and return each day.  They are welcome to stay for a spell.  

Our Geese Fly West

  You often hear of the migration of Canadian Geese.  Come winter months, the geese will fly south seeking a warmer climate where food is plentiful.  Then, come spring, they make the long flight back northward to nest and raise their broods.  It has been this way forever but, then, people got in the way and caused a bit of confusion, to say the least.  Canadian Geese were once a prime source of food for a lot of folks.  Because of their size and the sheer numbers (at the time), the geese were hunted to near extinction.  Alas!  People figured out a little late that their over-hunting was causing them a lack of hunting targets...the geese.  That said...something HAD to be done to remedy the situation.  The bright idea of captive hatching of goose eggs was the solution.  Yes.  It did solve the problem of the missing geese but the people doing the hatching merely released the young geese wherever they were hatched.   That was the beginning a problem for the geese and people who do not like geese pooping on their pristine lawns.

  Geese, like other migratory birds, do not automatically have it ingrained in their heads that they need to start a migration.  Migration is a learned deed and not instinctual.  Young birds follow what their parents do.  So when the elder birds take flight to avoid spending winter where food may become scarce, the juveniles follow.  The captive bred and released birds have no parents to follow so they stay where they were "planted".  No problem...except the birds are prolific when not faced with hunters shooting them.  Now people are complaining that there are too many geese when it is actually that the geese are just staying put in the only homes they have ever known.  No one taught them to migrate!  Yep, they do congregate in large flocks.  They do poop on the pretty, green grass.  They are loud, bossy and hungry all of the time.  In spite of all of that, they are pretty and rather interesting to watch.

  Here, we have resident geese.  Occasionally, a pair will attempt to nest in the marshes of the Bayou but, usually, their attempts are met with disaster as there are far too many predators roaming those same marshes.  The geese choose a slightly more inland nesting grounds around the many ponds, lakes and rivers.  Each year, the flocks grow in size and the birds appear to be healthy.  To answer the question as to why our geese fly west, we only have to understand just what is west of the Bayou.  Not far down the shoreline, there is a haven for wildlife better known as my cousin's yard.  Michelle feeds hundreds of geese and ducks that flock there twice each day.  She puts out enough grain for them, deer, raccoons and any other critters that might be hungry.  So, you see, our geese fly west to feast upon free food...I don't blame them!  Just because the geese do not have the instinctual habit of migrating north does not mean that they are stupid!  They just migrate where the food is!   Now you know!

How Do They Know??

  Just down the shoreline a bit from the Little Bayou House is my cousin's house.  She has an impeccable yard with some of the finest grass around.  All of the beautiful lawn is one of the drawing factors of some friends of hers....that an a hefty helping of corn.  Michelle has been feeding the geese for a few years now.  Twice a day, geese will fly over the Bayou on their way to her house.  There, they feast on whatever she puts out for them, drink from the small wading pool of fresh water, munch a bit of that green, green grass and generally just hang out a bit.  After their refreshments, the geese take off for parts unknown.  The group divides and heads in different directions but one group of about thirty fly over our place as they head northeast.

  When she first started putting out food, just a couple of geese stopped in to visit. The numbers grew over the years until now she has well over sixty of her fine feathered friends to feed.  My pondering is how?  How do geese put out the word that there is free food at her house?  These geese come in from all over the place.  They do not live near here.  Some even fly all the way across the Bay to dine in her back yard.  So...do the geese honk loud enough that the neighboring geese get the idea and come?  Then, do those let others know?  There has to be some method of communication going on here for the geese to get the word of free food and come flying from all directions at the same time each day.  I am confused.

  Michelle is one of those folks who can befriend just about any critter alive.  She feeds them all from alligators to deer...from coons to birds...every critter is welcome at her place.  Still...how in the world do the critters know??

All the same!

  I admit that I take a lot of photographs.  I love to take pictures of wildlife around the Bayou and can spend hours waiting for the perfect shot.  If there is a duck in the Bay or an otter under the pier, I am one happy camper.  It thrills me even more to find some visitor that is a bit uncommon.  For instance, finding a sora in the marsh might just make me ecstatic!  I do indeed like to take pictures of the critters.

  This week we are in Georgia visiting our son and daughter-in-law.  We always have the best time here but, all the while, I miss the Bayou. Today, Mark and I took a hike to a little pond just behind the house and were happily surprised to find a number of Canadian geese there. I could not resist.  The camera was put into action!  Dozens of photographs were taken of the eight geese.  Yep, we do have Canadian geese visit the Bayou during the winter but here I was taking pictures of geese.  Mark laughed and said, "I cannot believe you came all the way to Georgia to take pictures of geese...the same type geese that are back home on the Bayou."  I just grinned and answered "I can. Geese are great no matter where they are!"

  Now several hours later, a thought popped into my head.  I wonder if any of the geese today are kin to my Biloxi geese back home?  Maybe these are the same ones! Maybe they missed me and flew over to say "Hi!"  Nah....I guess that would be stretching it a bit.  Still, they are great geese!

Fly South!

In preparation of the ice storm that is supposed to descend upon us tomorrow, we gathered in a bit more firewood.  Plenty would be needed to keep the wood stoves chugging out that warmth!  While out and about, I could hear the critters making preparations as well.  The squirrels were busy stowing away all of the sunflower seeds that they could steal from the bird feeders.  This was a hard job considering Ms. Ez was standing guard to make sure that her feathered friends got their share of the seed.  Several times, geese could be heard making a landing in the Bayou.  Their honking drew our attention as they made entry.  This is not an unusual occurrence but what stirred my curiosity a bit was the fact that the geese never stayed more than a few minutes before taking flight southward once again.  Do they know something that we don't?  Is this ice storm going to be a doozy and deal us with more than we expect?  I pondered that fact as I threw a few more logs in the bin.

Normally, the Canadian Geese will make their appearance in the Bayou around December or January and hang around until late March or early April.  They find all they need in the way of food and shelter.  My cousin, Michelle, graciously sets out a fine meal for the critters. They can get their bellies full of the best eatings around.  Then, after leaving her place, they settle in for the night among the mudflats of the Bayou.  In the depths of the marsh, they are sheltered from the cold winds.  Several times, a few of the birds have hung around the Bayou well into April and even into early May.  I had hopes that those few pairs were considering nesting near the Bayou but as of yet, there has been no luck in this happening.  Maybe someday, but right now, even though some might linger none have stayed.

I am hoping that the geese we observed for the past few days are not trying to tell us something about the coming weather.  What with the "spoons" found inside the persimmon seeds predicting a snowy winter and the geese flying even further south, I wonder if our two bins of split wood will be enough.  Perhaps after this bit of frigid, icy weather, Michael and I had better start our gathering once again.  Mark has already started scoping out some more dead trees that will need to be removed so I imagine I will hear the chainsaw buzzing once again come the first nice day after the storm.  How can a couple of geese throw me in such a tizzy?

A Little Late

Again this morning, I heard the familiar honking of the pair of Canadian Geese that are still hanging around the Bayou.  You would think that these two would have already headed north for the summer but for some strange reason, they seem to be in no hurry to leave.  When I heard them calling, Ms. Ez and I headed to the pier.  Sure enough, they were only about thirty feet from me when I neared the water's edge.  Both turned to stare at me as they paddled about in the water.  I am supposing they wanted to make sure that I was friendly before they took any chances of coming nearer.   I motioned for Ms. Ez to sit and stay so she would not frighten the geese.

Before I heard the geese, I was tossing out some old bread for the squirrels.  Sometimes, those critters will haul of with a slice of bread and leave the birdseed alone!  Realizing that I still had the bread bag in my hand, I pulled out a slice, broke it in chunks and offered it to the geese.  Eagerly, they swam toward me and ate the bread.  This seemed to ease any fear they had of me.  I tossed the remaining slice in to them and they hurriedly gulped it.  Not having any more bread with me, I started taking pictures.  The geese thought differently and demanded more bread.  They swam closer and closer to me all the while making funny, soft honks.  Their stares of want tickled me.  I am guessing that I should have been a never-ending food supply or something!

Once the geese realized that I had no more food to offer, they honked loudly as if scolding me.  Ms. Ez leapt to her feet and let out a single bark.  She did not like them being rude!  The geese did nothing except flap their wings and honk louder!  I do believe this pair is spoiled!  My cousin, Michelle, puts out a lovely buffet of corn for the ducks and geese of the area.  It seems to me that the geese think I should do the same!  Sorry, Geese, not happening!  You swim back down the shoreline a bit and eat at the local duck diner!  Michelle has it all set out for you!