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!

The Right Tools!

  When you have a bushel of green beans on the kitchen table just waiting to be snapped and canned, you sure need the right tools for the job.  Canning green beans is not as simple as making jelly or pickles or even ketchup.   Since the beans are low-acidic, you need a pressure canner to get the job done correctly.  I have three.  Yep, I have three pressure canners and do not plan on parting with a one of them any time soon.  Eventually, one will probably go to each of my kids since they have all learned to do home-canning.  Once the kids are ready for a canner, each can pick a favorite but, for the time being, the pressure canners can stay where they are.  They are being used quite often. This week alone, over two hundred jars of goodies have been canned and are lining the shelves nicely.  Of course, a good many filled jars will find their way to my daughter's house.  She is in the healthcare profession and, right now, has no time to even think of doing domestic things.  I shall do them for her.  Canning for two households is not a big deal especially with Son's help!  He can do this with the best of them!  Those green beans are in the jars and ready to eat whenever needed.  

  The pressure canner that I used was given to me by my cousin.  When my aunt passed away, Michelle had no use for the thing but knew that I did.  She generously offered the equipment to me and I readily accepted.  I was excited about this particular canner simply because it is a lot larger than my others.  Both of the other canners are from the 1940s making it hard to find replacement parts.  I had just found a place to order new gaskets and pressure valves when my cousin made me the gift of the gold canner.  My new "pride and joy" is a "newer" model being made in the 1970s!  (See, I am not so far behind the times as folks think!  Well, yeah, I am but as long as the equipment works, it shall be used.)  

  With all the work happening in the kitchen, as of late, I have to make mention that it sure looks fine to have the pantry shelves filled.  The garden is producing crazily so the "happy canners" will be in use for a while yet this season.  (Note...even though the canner is the correct color, my kitchen is not pink as it appears in the photo.  I am not a "pink" person!)

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??

The Visitor

I occasionally write about my cousin, Michelle.  I stand in awe of her ability to befriend most any animal. She not only feeds a multitude of ducks and geese but, also, the squirrels, bluebirds, hummingbirds and any other critter that finds itself hungry. Why..she even holds the feeders for the hummers!  Critters just seem to know that she would never harm a one of them. 

A beautiful hawk that came to visit my cousin, Michelle.

Today, she took pictures of a hawk that visited her yard.  The bird flew around her while she was out walking as if begging to be her pal!  The hawk had no fear as it landed on her fence and even on the ground.  Whether this bird actually wanted to become friends or whether it was scouting for a free meal is anybody's guess. Perhaps it realized that with all of the other critters coming in for a meal, its quest for prey would be simple!  I am quite sure that the hawk would make quick work of one of the grey squirrels that raid the bird feeders!

A hawk visiting my cousin, Michelle's yard.  Notice the mockingbird that is sitting next to the hawk!  Such a great picture!

Still..knowing Michelle, it won't be long before she is holding the hawk.  Never one to fear any critter, she will most likely be friends with the bird by the end of the week!  What I want to see is how in the world she will make it understand that the other critters are off limits.  Will it be possible for her to convince a hawk to eat from the feeders side by side with the geese?  With Michelle..I would not put it past her.  If anyone can do it..she can! Keep in mind that she will pick up a copperhead snake or hand feed an alligator!  Yep, she does, indeed, have a way with the critters!

The pictures in this post were taken by Michelle Hengen and belong to her.  She was very kind to let me borrow them for your enjoyment.

Coming home from Michelle's Diner!

My cousin, Michelle, lives just west of us if you go down the shoreline. This is the cousin that has an unique way with most animals.  Michelle can befriend any critter that flies, swims or crawls on the face of the earth!   She is also the one that feeds the masses of geese and ducks.  Every morning and then again every evening, the birds start to either fly in to her yard or they swim up to the shore and walk up the lawn to her house.  They know that a lovely meal will be set out just for their enjoyment.  Sometimes it looks like every duck and goose in the entire state is waiting at her door for a handout!

All of these ducks made me ponder just where they go after leaving her place.  I could see some flying past the pier and knew that several had nested in the Bayou but I had no idea how many called this place "Home".  Then this evening, I heard a familiar quacking.  The ducks had finished eating and flew back to the Bayou for the evening.  Wow!  That sure sounds like a lot of ducks!  It was getting rather late which made it quite difficult to see through the marsh grass.  The Bayou winds this way and that through the marsh.  Some of the canals are just a few feet wide but other areas are nigh on a hundred feet across.  The ducks had landed in one of the wide open spaces and were following some of the smaller canals to their nesting grounds.

I was curious to see just how near the ducks would come.  Surely they stayed closer to the open water.  I stood still just listening to the soft quacks.  The ducks were obviously keeping tabs on each other as they rounded the twists and turns of the Bayou.  Suddenly, a large group appeared right in front of me!  I snapped a few pictures and then started to count.  The first bunch had eleven ducks!  I could hear more around the corner but they did not come any closer.  The group of eleven settled in for the night on a strip of the shoreline.  The quacks quietened to a soft "duck whisper".  Obviously, each group has its own bedding site and from the sounds of it, there were several groups of about a dozen each. Tomorrow morning, bright and early, these same ducks will make the trip to Michelle's house for breakfast!  I guess my Bayou is just their sleeping quarters..Michelle feeds them!  And from the looks of the ducks, she feeds them quite well!