George and Gertie the Canada Geese have adopted our yard as their home base. I suspect it is for a couple of reasons.
Spring is here in North Carolina and time for baby geese. Our house is located across from a tiny island on the lake and I suspect that George and Gertie are building a nice little nest away from any critters that would harm it. A quick hop in the lake and they can pop over to our yard.
I also suspect they love our yard because of the bird feeders. While we are admonished here to not feed the wildlife like deer, raccoons, squirrels, fox, bear or geese I do feed the birds. I actually had a neighbor comment to me that there seemed to be a lot more birds around and I suspect it is because I love to have bird feeders out. One of the things that happens with feeders is that seed does fall on the ground as the birds search for that perfect seed so often I will look out and see George and Gertie cleaning up under the feeders.
Yesterday I was out picking up sticks in the yard. It took me along time to pick up all of them and there are still a lot to wrangle. That is what happens when you live on a lot with a lot of old trees. Limbs and little branches fall all the time and while they are great for eventual fire pit fires it is a lot of work to pick them all up. Add to that the fact that the back yard is a virtual land mine of duck, goose and deer poop and it is an interesting task.
As I picked up sticks Gertie and George watched me and didn’t even honk. I guess they knew I meant them no harm even if I came close to them.
Some of you might remember Maude and Henry the mallard ducks that used to come visit our pool in Mooresville. After we moved whenever we saw a couple together they were Henry and Maude and they followed us everywhere. One of Aaron’s friends even sends me pictures of Henry and Maude sightings. So it is a thing with me. I name animals and adopt them as part of my extended family. And how could I forget about Giovanni and Gabriella (big lizards) in Australia that lived under our house? I guess I really do have an interesting family, don’ t I?
Do you have any regular visitors to your yard that you name? Don’t forget to Comment for a Cause. It all counts.
