The Sentinel
About a week ago, I discovered that the Canada geese parents I had been watching had abandoned their nest. I was so sad for them -- she had been sitting patiently for days and he had been slowly traversing the water, back and forth and back and forth -- but snapping turtles and racoons present constant hazards to the geese and ducks.
Then I discovered them under the boardwalk with six fluffy goslings -- they had abandoned the nest because they were finished with it! A couple of days later, it looked like only two of the little ones remained, but gradually all six appeared. They were simply extending their range.
And this morning the entire family was out for a swim. The goslings are sticking much closer to each other and to their parents; it looks like they're finding the water a bit more intimidating than the grassy cover of land.
Walked: 3.7 miles. Ran into a friend and she said it was 90 degrees -- at 7:00 p.m!
6 comments:
I love this. It reminded me of "Make Way for Ducklings" which is one of my kids favorite books. We even did a tour (self guided not an official tour) of Boston to see the places that the ducks visited while looking for place to nest.
I love that book, too! In the next couple of weeks the mallard and wood duck babies will hatch, and then the lake will be full of life -- those parents sometimes have as many as 12 or 13 ducklings streaming behind them.
I used to love seeing that when we lived in NC.
There is a pond not far from here that I used to love taking Corrie to. We loved seeing the babies and watching them get bigger. I still go there to read but in the past few years we don't get as many ducks and geese.
The teacher I work with just read The Trumpet Swan by E.B.White. I don't ever remember reading that, but it is a wonderful story about swans and family. Definteily recommend it, at any age!
We used to listen to the tape of that book on long car drives with our kids. Wonderful story!
Post a Comment