The Entertainment Center

Greetings,

The Lake home is a window into the surrounding wild life. The wild life are the owners of the lake and the woods. They just haven’t completed the paper work to claim their rights.

Yesterday provided a good window for the Canada Geese in residence. They came to my shore to come on board the front lawn. I watched the first pair. They had, five or six young goslings, they were staying so close together and moving so rapidly I could not be sure of the count at first. It turned out to be five. They were still young since instead of feathers they were more like a ball of fuzz. The parents have been at the lake a number of years. Early on the eggs must not have hatched or they didn’t have any eggs. The last few years this pair has been producing five or six a year. It is fun to watch them grow rapidly during the summer. First they mature to having feathers. Then the grooming lessons begin, preening. That allows the water to stay on the outside of their bodies. They coat their feathers with their saliva? Next flying lessons, where they do not quite get airborne. They practice landing feet first. By fall they are up in the air and circling in wider circles. By winter they are gone and most do not return. Which is good. We only have three pair and a lone Goose as regulars. That lone goose is another story for another time.

In the meantime, like yesterday, later in the day I spotted another pair of Canada Geese on the lawn with three goslings, even smaller. They swim well and even get up on the lawn to eat grass already. The parents are very skittish. All I have to do is go out on the four season porch and they are heading into the water. They allow me to watch from inside at the dinning room table. The lake is their safety net. The young stay really close to their mother and Dad is ever watching and protecting.

Now two families will provide entertainment during the summer. The third couple doesn’t seem to have young ones that I have seen. And maybe the lone one is staying clear while the young grow. They do put their heads down to make like a hunting spear to chase another goose away.

More will be written as the young goslings entertain as they grow.

God’s world is a wonderland, “All creatures great and small,” as it has been written. And sometimes, “All things bright and beautiful.”

From the edge,

Marlin

Retired hospital chaplain

Ex farm boy still tending the garden