Lake News–Migrating Geese
It was another beautiful day on the lake today. Can you believe it’s November and the weather is still in the 50s? I swear this is true, but we saw our neighbors out on the deck last night, hanging out with some friends around one of those outdoor fire pits. Mind you, it was in the low 40s at the time. Only in Minnesota.
This time of year, we see lots of migrating geese pass through. Of course, with the warmer weather, it has been a prolonged migration. You can always pick out the migrants. They are the birds that flush at the sight of anything foreign. Spooky things! The resident geese, on the other hand, will practically let you walk on top of them. Not during the nesting season, however.
Today, we witnessed massive flocks flying over the house. The cacophony of honking was almost deafening. The weather is supposed to take a turn tomorrow, so the birds were taking advantage of the time to fuel up. Another thing about migrants–rather than landing in the yard, they landed on the water. With no experience of the area, they have no way of knowing friend or foe.
That’s what cracks me up about our goofy neighbors. They’re not “teaching” the birds to stay away. The next round of birds will be an entirely new set of geese. They won’t “remember” the lesson if they are chased off. The fake coyotes are laughable. I think the geese probably view them the same way. I often see them feeding next to the pseudo-predators.
I enjoy having the geese around. It’s one of the joys of being on the lake. Wildlife is close by. I don’t feel as isolated as I did when I lived in the city. Honk away, migrants! This is definitely friendly territory.
We used to have the geese in Ohio, but not here in Arizona. I like the birds – but there always seemed to be TOO many of them and poo EVERYWHERE
November 23rd, 2009 at 3:48 pm