A Day at the Spa (if you're a Canada Goose)

I know that many of you are wondering how the Canada Geese are faring in this extremely cold weather. I'm sure you woke up this morning and immediately thought of them, humanitarian (or aviatarian) that you are. Did I just make up a new word? So I thought I'd take a look-see and let you know just what the geese on our pond are up to.It hasn't frozen over yet, so they're actually having a good time, or at least it seems that way to me. So let's take a look, shall we? Some of them are sleeping in the sun. They look comfortable sitting right on top of the ice on the pond. I think they have a little trouble getting unstuck if they've been asleep for so long. Others are having a bite to eat under the water. Some are bathing in that freezing water. Still others are walking on top of the ice, sometimes falling in. Those 3 at the top left of the photo above are laughing at one who just fell inon the right. I saw them turn around and look. They're quite catty over there in their little group. I watched them for a little while, but it was difficult to get too close. They all take off when they see you coming. Usually I don't care because they leave goose poop all over the hill and George is always walking in it and sometimes rubbing his neck in it. Mmm, yummy. But to get these photos this morning, I had to sneak up on them.

Call me crazy, but in order to take these photos, I left the pup inside and attached my zoom lens to the camera, got bundled up and went outside. Quietly, I crouched down on the top of the hill and stayed there for a moment. Then I moved closer. The alert went out. There's always one in every crowd that sounds the alarm. Then they quieted down and discussed it among themselves as to what that person was doing at the top of the hill. Their quiet talking is something I hear all the time. It's comforting, really. So me, being the inquisitive person that I am, got down on the ground and opened up my little tripod. Still too far away. So I drug myself, using my arms, army style, to a better location. I know this sounds funny. And to see it, it probably was. But I needed to get closer to see just what these geese were up to. They didn't see me coming, and I stopped and took a couple more shots, but I was still too far away. So more crawling on my elbows. Hey, you can really cover some ground moving like this! Only thing is that, well, remember the goose poops I mentioned before? Um, I'm crawling through them, but they're frozen solid so it's all good. Hey, I'm a country person, I can handle some goose poop.

Finally, I get to a place where the photos will work and the geese still haven't spotted me. But what's that noise? I hear a motor behind me. I roll over and see that my husband's farm truck is coming down the hill, right at me. No!! You'll scare the geese. Now they're squawking . . . the alert has gone out. The wings start flapping and one takes off. But they calm down. My husband pulls up right next to me and asks me what I'm doing on he ground, was I ok? Then he sees my camera and now it makes sense. So he asks if I've filled the backyard feeders for the birds. (He likes to see that I'm busy on my day off, when he has to work.) I mean, that's all he wanted. But I still got my shots! And I only got a little dried up poop on my jeans.