Sunday, March 4, 2012

Nature–Migration

IMG_7286Since I can’t write about what I am working on right now with my quilting/sewing, my blog posts have been very sparse to say the least and no quilting/sewing stuff at all.  Sorry, this is another post about what is going on outside in the fresh air here in Nebraska so if you don’t want to read about it you can just move on to something else.  IMG_7306A week ago I took these photos of the spring migration of geese through central Nebraska.  It is kind of funny that most of the different types of geese stick together with their own kind and this group is mostly all snow geese.  We get millions of snow geese migrating through Nebraska plus Canada geese and a few other kinds that I can't think of right now.  It seems early to have migration in February when we could still get snow storms but that is when they start coming through on their way north to Arctic breeding areas.  As you can see from the above photo of this small lake it is almost completely covered with snow geese.IMG_7305This small lake is close to I-80 near the town where my mother lives.  If you have ever driven through Nebraska on the interstate going east/west there is usually a small lake wherever there is an overpass as the dirt for the overpass was removed to build them and since the water table is so close to the surface they fill with water creating rectangular lakes.  We get the large groups of geese here where we live too but I never seem to have my camera with me when I see them in the fields eating.  Here we see then mostly in the cornfields and soybean fields (last years leftovers that still have some grain that they can find.)  The day we saw these we had driven west 2 1/2 hours to where I grew up and took my mother out to eat at a fast food restaurant near the interstate for lunch.  After lunch we drove close to the lake so she could see them.  (By the way my mother loves to eat at fast food restaurants when we go out as she never gets a freshly made hamburger and especially hot French fries at the place she lives so we try to treat her when we can.)IMG_7303We sat in the car for some time just watching the thousands of birds in the lake and the thousands of the birds flying overhead with the car windows open so we could hear them honking and calling to each other as they really are noisy!  My 90 year old mother lives in an assistant living facility and doesn’t drive so doesn’t get a chance to see things like this.  She said she could see some flying overhead when she looked out her windows that week at times but nothing close up so was as enthralled as John and I were watching them.IMG_7297You may have noticed that all the geese in the photos are not all white.  Snow geese are not all white, some are mostly white with black tips on their wings and some are called “blues’ and immature ones are more like the blues.  You can read more about them on this Wikipedia web page.  Of course there are lots of other webpages out there I am sure that give information about these geese too.IMG_7307Each season brings new and different things to see, hear and smell out here on the farm.  I never get tired of appreciating mother nature and all the wonders of this world and am so glad I got to grow up on a farm with parents who pointed out the constant changes around us.  Now I have lived on a farm with my husband for 40 years and still am amazed at what I can see if I only pay attention.

Until Later – Lynn

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