Sunday, May 15, 2016

Awww ... Urban Wildlife Watching


A couple years ago, construction workers converted 
a ditch near work into a marshy retention pond.
It's meant to hold overflow rainwater from surrounding
neighborhoods, preventing homes from flooding.
Last summer it seemed to be a wasted effort
because we had so little rain, but this year 
the reeds and cattails are happily standing in water, 
providing shelter for redwing blackbirds,
mallard ducks, and Canada geese.


A couple weeks ago, I noticed this goose roosting 
on a spot not ten feet from the road.
Last week I took another look and saw that
she had little bits of yellow fluff peeping from
beneath her own gray feathers.
Babies! She'd hatched her little goslings!
I could only see four.


A few days later, I saw she had gone.
I figured she's taken her babies to another, safer spot,
away from the dangers and distractions of human
intervention and annoyances.
Another coworker went closer to the nest 
and saw there were eggs.
Would she have just abandoned her eggs
or had she realized they weren't going to hatch
and taken her little family to a new home?


3 comments:

William Kendall said...

Sweet little balls of fluff!

Anonymous said...

I am beginning to worry about Speedway...

Speedway said...

Hi,22bb, SDP is fine. Thank you for asking. I'm just working and swimming with not many pics in between.

Needless to say, my thoughts are with you. Take care.