Welcome to Friday where we join our furry friends, Rosy, Sunny, Arty and Jakey from LLB in Our Backyard for another Blogville edition of Nature Friday. So how was your week? It’s been breezy in the 303 which means the leaves have fallen and now lay strewn over lawns and flower beds basically mocking residents to rake them up. Mostly I’ve resisted any urge to rake most of them up, instead hoping the wind will carry them down toward the next street over. Yeah, I’m ‘that‘ kind of person.
I did however take some collected garden waste to the city’s recycling program at Sloan’s Lake (which is where all these images were taken).
The local Canadian geese population have pretty much stopped migrating south for the winter preferring instead the hospitality of Denver’s 250+ city parks. There’s something about these large birds that always makes me stop and watch them for long stretches of time whether they are on the water or chasing uprights and their pets waddling around the park. They aren’t one bit afraid of humans or dogs and will chase you if you invade their comfort zone. One might even accuse them of being aggressive.
Hanging out in Sloan’s Lake shallow waters, these guys were bathing and sunning themselves. Notice the Mallard herding them into a circle. Kidding…my guess is the Mallards avoid the geese as much as the rest of us, but what a striking fella motoring around the fringes of the gaggle.
One might speculate the increasing COVID conditions have encouraged these guys to congregate much like upright visitors (and unfortunately far too many maskless ones at that-come on people-stop being a mask-hole!) walking and bicycling around the park yesterday in the gorgeous November weather. While we repeatedly hear of storms in the forecast, nothing has materialized yet. Still it’s hard to knock 70 degree days, despite the area being desperate for moisture-just check out the parched looking grasses around the park.
Then there’s always that one guy who has to show off to the chicks by spreading his wings. Show-off. Who knew there were obnoxious jocks in the geese world?
We hope you’ve enjoyed checking out the Canadian geese of Sloan’s Lake and hope you will get out this weekend to enjoy some beautiful weather as well as some of beautiful sights Mother Nature offers in autumn.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
What a beautiful collection of nature pictures! I always enjoy watching the social interactions of these silly feathered friends!
They can be quite mesmerizing when they’re out on water.
Yes, thank you for sharing! We are planning to go out to enjoy some nice weather before it’s getting colder!
Have a terrific week!
We understand! During gosling season, Momma and The Boy spend a lot of time watching the little families in the park across the street! They have ducks there too!
Ducks are a hoot to watch. Geese on the other hand…
We’re surrounded by woods, so my hope is that all the leaves will just blow into the woods. However, it doesn’t usually work that way and I’ll be doing raking in the spring!
There is a huge flock of geese hanging out on a horse farm that I drive by on my way to work. I love to see them, I think they are such pretty birds!
Hope you’re having a great weekend!
There’s always clean up in the spring, whether you rake in the fall or not!
Our geese seem to hang around the city parks all the year long, too. Hmmm, I think they are becoming too dependent on humans for food and shelter…
Yesterday while driving to and fro, I saw some wild turkeys, a Tom, and his hens. He began to display to them…but sheesh, you’d think turkeys would be hiding this time of the year, LOL!
(And of course I had no camera…sigh…)
Birds don’t seem to be the brightest light in the chandelier. ‘Cept they sure seem to know how to enjoy a good buffet from the local park or golf course. 😊
Or at least keep a low profile this time of year. 😇
Your pictures are fantabulous, Monika! They are noisy and dirty birds (their poop everywhere), aren’t they?
Happy weekend!
And those are probably their best attributes. 😈 Happy weekend!
Hahaha! I will… I start a new job on Monday.. Woot!
Outstanding! Here’s hoping it fulfills all your work needs. Very best of luck!
Financially, it will help; morally also, I’m thinking. I will be working there and not in my own home. It will be nice to get out of the house! Thank you!
👍🏻 Much love and success.
Thank you. I’ve a good feeling.
We have been watching the geese leave. We won’t miss their poop.
Amen. That stuff is just nasty!
Bright November day you have! We are ” that” kind of people with the leaves too, the oak leaves we drive to peaces with a lawn mover. Here geese also stop in parks and beaches and guess what? People want to shoot them, they are a nuisance, because they poop. They are here some weeks and then fly South, and this is a huge problem. I don’t know know what is wrong with these people, wolves must be killed, also bears, jackdaws, crows, moose, deers and we have past the stone age already.
Have a great sunny weekend, forehead kisses to doggies.
It really is quite astounding. Thanks for the well wishes. It’s a clear blue sky today though a tad cooler and yet I’d trade it for a nice shower in a minute. Ear and belly rubs for Kosmo. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. 💙
The western Canadian geese are out here too, they’re wild little guys! The part about the show off is so true! We try to stay as far away from them as possible because I think they could take out Scarlett 😉
I think they can take out just about anything they encounter! Have a great weekend and give Scarlett some ear rubs from us.
Our geese have flown the coop. They always find their way back.
The ones here are like relatives you’re not that crazy about. They overstay any welcome.
We love watching the geese here, too! They congregate on certain streets and don’t seem to mind if a car is coming or not – they go at their own leisurely pace wherever they want to go.
And Missouri, I think, has even more “mask-holes” than Colorado (I think I’m going to have to steal that phrase!).
This whole mask thing just baffles me. I don’t get it and don’t understand why it’s such a problem for people. Don’t you want to keep Grandma and Grandpa safe? Then wear a damn mask!! 😷 #COVIDIOTS
Yep, geese can be quite aggresive. Maybe that male is practicing for mating season, catching the eyes of the girls and hoping they’ll remember him come spring. Or, with 70 degrees, maybe he’s just confused about the season!
He did seem to have high T levels 😆
Happy Friday … but I have to be a party pooper. A work colleague of many years ago was an avid hunter – and he corrected me … they are Canada Geese. Just another reason to have a beer. Cheers.
And still aggressive no matter what you call them. 😇
Enjoy this … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYyn-nP92JE
Bwahahaha. Good one. I surprisingly was rooting for the goose and I’m not a fan of geese!
I knew you would like it! Fitting for your post.
It sure was! Made me snicker out loud.
Mew mew mew that lookss like G. Gordon Goose from our ‘hood Miss Monika…hee iss all wayss showin off his wingss! An inn all fareness, hee iss purrty hansum fore a Goose!!
THE Geese all look furry happy to bee down there….say are they ‘Snowbirdss’??? Mew mew mew…
**purrss** BellaDharma an ((huggiess)) LadyMew
Pee S: THE G inn Gordon’ss name iss fore Gorgeeus! Liek you were even sirprized rite??
Handsome devils they are. Emphasis on the devil part. 😈
Mew mew mwe wee KNOW Miss Monika! Geese are purrty full of themselvess! 😉
And more than happy to let everyone around them know it!
You got THAT rite Miss Monika!!!
Geese can be aggressive, so glad you were able to enjoy them from afar. As for leaves, I live on a hill, surrounded by trees. That means I, too, have leaves falling through Dec, but they are relatively easy to either rake or blow into the woods. Getting them off the roof and out of the gutters is another thing altogether though.
Yeah, that’s a whole nuther pain. 🍂🍁🍂
We small birds are the ones to watch out for.
Gorgeous photos! And to the geese, yes, they can be quite aggressive.
I remember a time when my parents rented a summer cottage in a town called Cutchogue, NY(on the north fork of Long Island)…the house faced a small body of water appropriately named Goose Creek. My Mom – whose patience rivaled even the most patient saint’s own – would take a lawn chair down to the water’s edge and sit there for hours waiting for the geese to come to her to get pieces of day-old bread. (Those were the days before we knew bread was not necessarily good for water fowl.) By summer’s end, Mom had almost every goose in the gaggle taking bread GENTLY out of her hand.
I don’t know where Mom got that much patience from, but I wish she had filtered more of it down to me. (I’ve pretty much run out of what little patience I had left when this pandemic started.)
Anyway, too many mask-holes here in Greenville (SC) for my liking, so we’ll probably just continue to enjoy the fresh air in our own backyard.
Watching them from a distance is ok by me. Truth is birds kind of terrify me in general. Not sure I’d have your mum’s patience COVID or not! 😃
Beautiful colours in those photographs… a nice reward for recycling.
We kept geese when in France…about thirty of them. They were fine with us but not with strangers and, yes, their calling cards were all over the place so cutting the grass was a hazard in itself needing goggles and old clothes – but it was worth it for the sight of two gendarmes who had come to check up on us during one of the avian ‘flu outbreaks legging it at speed before the onslaught of thirty outstretched necks and flapping wings.
Now that would have been some sight! And I’m just enough of a pill to have enjoyed it. 😂
Oh, we did!
🤣
Canada geese are a wee bit too successful a species, methinks. Poop factories that pollute watersheds and take down big airplanes!
“Too successful” is a kind way of putting it. 😈 The Park Dept. had a capture and euthanasia program for another park that had residents up in arms, on both sides. It’s a pain to remove the evidence of their presence from one’s shoes or paws.
I hear tell they make tasty eating… time to bring back the Christmas goose tradition. 😉
Hahaha. That’s be one way to control their numbers. 😈
Organically raised! 😀
Bwahaha.
Denver always had plenty of Canada geese…and their, um, souvenirs. Haven’t seen a one since moving to San Diego.
They’re no fools, why fly thousands of miles when all their needs are met here. Yeah, the ‘souvenirs’ I can definitely live without!
Haha…yes!
Here, I let the leaves sit on the lawn and decay by themselves.I could blow/rake them into a heap at the curb, where the city would pick them up. We have this programme every autum and spring [when the oaks shed their leaves].
Have a great weekend,
Pit
The city will mulch them but you have to bag them and get them to a recycle center. And some of the immediate trees shed leaves into the middle of December. Ugh. 🍁
Can’t beat a few days in the 70s in mid-November! But all those giant pooper birds…
Yeah, one must be careful where you walk-they tend waddle all over the bike/walking path. Ewwww
They were the absolute bane of my existence back in my golfing days. I hear goose is a popular holiday dinner for some folk…I have an idea…dials Food Bank…
LOL, yes, they were liked more before they became too aggressive and too many of them. The park department had to conduct a ‘capture and euthanize” program that had some residents in the Wash Park area up in arms. Don’t suspect anyn golfers complained much. 😉
The only Canadians that are impolite, eh?
Pretty much!
Happy geese!
More like bullies. They’re fun to watch from a distance but can be quite aggressive at times.
That does look like a nice place to visit but all those Canada Geese can be a problem.
They’re a nuisance at some parks-so much so they’ve instituted “capture and euthanize” programs from some parks after neighbors complained about all the geese poop.
I did enjoy the lake and geese. The Mallard is beautiful. Thank you.
Thanks, John. I do enjoy taking a walk around the lake and seeing the wildlife and ‘wagnificent’ views of downtown from the western edge of the lake. The sunrises there are to die for!
I love birds and we see these birds on our way to the boat. In the spring they head south and in the fall they head north. Beautiful.
Have a fabulous day and weekend. Scritches to the pups. ♥
Let me just say many would love for them to actually migrate, rather than crash all year long here. The food sources are way too plentiful for these guys to move on. Still I do enjoy watching them especially on cold bleak days. Have a great weekend!