Synchronized Swimming

Goose synchronized swimming

Two weekends ago I had spied a pair of swans nesting in some reeds off a major thoroughfare, then saw them again yesterday when I was on the bus, headed to an appointment. So I donned my thermal layers (minus 14 C windchill!) and walked over this morning, to get a few snapshots.

This is the view, below, before zooming in. The swans are tiny white specs on a little spit of land in the middle of the image.

At full zoom

There were lots of geese around too (hence the first pic of the pair feeding, who were much closer to me), and even a pair of nesting geese with the swans, which I didn't see until I got home and downloaded the pics. I think you'd have to look at them at full size to see the geese on the left.

In fact, there were three geese, the male, the female who stayed on the nest, and another with them (last year's child?) too. All but the female goose took to the water when I moved down to the water's edge, even though I was so far away. The pic below is blurry--I couldn't do any better at that distance--but you can just make out both swans in the water, the two geese with them, possibly a duck or maybe a rock (lol), and the remaining goose on the land.

Blurry pics and all, it still was worth almost getting frostbite on my hands for them. :-)

Yesterday I managed a close up of a robin in the tree behind our fence, from an upstairs window. It still was early in the morning, so not that light, and I couldn't quite see what I was getting. I cut off his tail, unfortunately...though luckily for him, that's only in the snapshot! This pic, too, is a bit blurry, but it was the best of the few I managed to snap before he flew off.

Below is Willard, my stylist's adopted cat. Unfortunately they lost their senior dog, Wiley, to a brain tumour. He was diagnosed just after my previous visit and managed an extra month of life with meds, but that was all, sadly. However, Willard seems to be filling the void and has settled in nicely. He had just been adopted when I last was there, and he wouldn't come near me. Yesterday he came right away to greet me, though he was cautious of the camera when I pulled it out. I finally put it on the floor and let him sniff it, play with the cord.

What a cutie.  :-)

Also cute, these two, this afternoon:

I hope everyone's had a good weekend. It'll be a short work week ahead, with Good Friday on the horizon. We don't have Easter Monday off, but I'm looking forward to the three days all the same.

Peace.