I did a recent post involving a conundrum called a “Goose Jam” and no, that is not something you slather on your English Muffin.
In that post, which can be found by clicking here, you learned how the Canada Geese and their offspring like to monopolize Elizabeth Park Drive, the one and only, one-way road that encircles this man-made island.
On July 31st, the day I visited, all the gangly looking goslings were now young geese, looking like mirror images of their parents, just a wee bit smaller. At any given time, when visiting this picturesque park, the geese are everywhere, congregating in and around the canal, on the grassy slopes and, of course, crossing the aforementioned road in an always indecisive and slow meander.
Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy!
This heading is from the song “Convoy” by C.W. McCall. I used it because there was not only a gathering of the feathered clan at the canal, but those geese had formed a disorganized queue as they proceeded down the middle of the canal, much to the chagrin of the kayakers, who were enjoying a leisurely afternoon paddle away from the madd(en)ing crowd (humans that is), only to encounter a traffic jam of waterfowl on the waterway, when the geese similarly decided to have a leisurely afternoon paddle up and down and across the canal.
It was quite the sight to see, the old arched bridge in the background, a canal clogged with kayakers and geese, plus lots of Mallards too. I first photographed them from above, where I stood on the vehicle bridge …
… then I hurried down to ground level to walk near the canal shoreline to get more shots. There were geese everywhere!
I took a slew of shots and as a pair of kayakers approached, having negotiated a few twists and turns as the geese got a little too close, I shouted to ask them if they were worried about the bullheaded geese giving them the right of way and they answered with a resounding “yes we were!”
After the kayakers passed, the geese regrouped – so who could they bother now?
The humans seemed to be good natured about sharing the canal with their feathered friends, laughing as a group of mischievous geese, lined up beak to tail and crossed the canal right in front of them. The geese don’t yield and figure they have the right of way, just like when crossing the road.
Fall is fleeting ….
With Summer 2022 just a memory and Fall in full force, the weather folks have predicted a few snowflakes to mingle with the raindrops just about the time this post is publishing. Sigh – only 153 days until Spring!
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Wonderful photography. Perfect capture picture. Beautiful you sharing the “Goose Jam” crossed the road. Beautiful park.
I like.
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Thank you rajkkhoja. Glad you liked the pictures and the earlier post too. Those geese have a mind of their own and they really could care less how long they make you wait. 🙂
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Ok, Thank you so much. I could read you blog & enjoyed them. You always new Post. I like.
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Thank you so much rajkkhoja. I am glad you are enjoying them.
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Really I never seen live gesses , nature scenery and big park. I enjoyed that’s I saw your post pictures.
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rajkkhoja, I am lucky to live so close to where I can see waterfowl in and around the water, plus birds and critters on land as well. Starting a walking regimen was one of the best things I have ever done for myself.
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You are so.. so lucky. I hope I visit your country you pray for me. Stay your site.
Thank you so much you respond me. And you always reply me. Iam so .. so happy 😊, and 😂!
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Hi rajkkhoja – yes, I am lucky to see all this beauty and not have to travel far to do so. I hope that you are able to visit this country and see some of it for yourself someday. I am happy to respond to you. Unlike you, I only speak and write one language. I don’t admit that I studied French for so many years as I never got a chance to use it once I finished college.
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Bunch of thanks! Iam so glad. God bless you!
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Thank you very much rajkkhoja!
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What a wonderful post. So so so many Geese. Like them interacting with those humans traveling past them on the water. I do believe they had a Convoy. Ha Ha I can tell this was a thrilling time for you and I can see why from your great photos.
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Thanks Peggy – glad you liked the photos. Yes, it was a beautiful sight for me to see, both up on the vehicle bridge and then when I got down to the canal shoreline. Lots of Mallards as well, but I wanted to make this post all about the geese. There were a lot of waterfowl gathered here as they awaited their flight feathers to grow in, so they stay close to the water (canal and the canal flows into the Detroit River) for an easy escape from land predators. The kayakers seemed okay with it – I’d be worried about so many of them around a kayak!
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I definitely am not a person who wants to navigate a kayak. I prefer watching everything from shore.
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Same here Peggy – I know it looks like fun. I don’t know why I never learned how to swim.
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Kayaks turn over and put a person underwater and you need to stay calm and right yourself with a good flip back to the surface. Scary. I can swim, but I do not care that much for swimming.
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Yes, scary indeed. I know I would panic. Here in Michigan we have countless drownings every Summer, whether it is boating accidents or swimmers hitting a riptide and go under. We just had a father die last week when he and his teenage son were using a remote control boat and the boat failed, so the father swam out to retrieve it and drowned. When I was younger, I went on two cruises that had very small boats called tenders to transport passengers to ports of call where the cruise ship could not get close to dock. I never thought anything about climbing into the small boat though I couldn’t swim. I think as I get older I am more cautious about everything.
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Caution is the secret to reaching old age. My dizziness does not let me get in a boat anymore.
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That makes sense and I know as you get older, one of the things I constantly read is the importance of balance because losing one’s balance is often the cause of falls.
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Yes, gotta be careful when old age comes along. My last fall cause a concussion.
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Oh my Peggy. My friend had a concussion and brain bleed after her dog tripped her and she fell down the cement porch steps and hit her had on the cement sidewalk. She lives alone and has lots of relatives, but no one to stay with her 100% of the time, so she had to stay in a step-down facility for six weeks until fully recovered. She is a former co-worker and was in her early 80s at the time. She is now completely recovered though.
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I had my husband to help me at home when I had my concussion. It took 3 months to get back to normal – very miserable time. I hope nothing like this ever happens to you. Be careful.
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You were lucky to have someone to help you Peggy. Thank you, yes, that worries me (a lot actually). When my friend Ilene did the trip and fall onto the concrete, her nephew had brought his Golden Retriever puppy over to show her. Her own Golden Retriever saw the puppy and rushed over to see it, tripping Ilene. Her nephew took her to the E.R. and they said she had a minor brain bleed and sent her home that night. She got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and when she sat up in bed, she got dizzy and slid onto the floor. She was alone and called an emergency number (I don’t know if they have 911 in Canada, but assume so). Then they did surgery right away and she was away from home all that time. Very scary.
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Wow – quite a story about Ilene. Don’t understand them sending her home from the ER so fast. I know I have had some bad experiences with doctors over the years.
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I agree with you Peggy. That is the trouble now with hospitals – they suggest you go to Urgent Care instead of the ER because the ER is so busy. Ilene went to the ER and they didn’t deem it important enough to hold her at least overnight. My mom had bad experiences as well through the years and I do not trust doctors now. My mom’s cellulitis might have gotten better if the dermatologist had referred her to an infectious disease doctor after she had a particularly bad flare-up. There are other doctors as well.
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I can understand about doctors. I dislike doctors very much. I don’t care for Urgent care clinics. My family has had several bad experiences with them. So sorry your mom had problems with doctors.
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Both times my mom had nice doctors (her orthopedic doc and the first infectious disease doc), they left the practice. One moved to South Carolina to open up a clinic for poor people. Dr. Griz said “I’ve made all the money I need for a lifetime, so I’m going to help people.” He was nice – I liked him. The infectious disease doc left the practice after he disagreed with the senior doc. He went about 100 miles away and is now not only the head of the department, but the entire hospital. He has been interviewed countless times regarding the pandemic on the news station I listen to. I only went to urgent care once, years ago, to get a flu shot as they had a sign out front for walk-ins. It was before CVS and Walgreens, etc. had them starting in August. They made me go into a room, took my temp, blood pressure, looked down my throat – I said “why are you doing that?” They said because we are giving you an exam to ensure you are healthy to get the flu shot. They charged my insurance for a physical and I reported them to my insurance company for doing that. I’m soured on doctors, but do know I should go for a physical. Now that I’m on Medicare, they wanted to send a visiting nurse to the house for a mini physical – I said I didn’t want anyone here due to Covid and when I’m ready to, I’ll go for a physical, but I eat healthy and walk a lot.
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Interesting to know about other people’s experiences with doctors. What doctors call physicals anymore does not amount to much.
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Yes, that’s so true. I never liked my mom’s two orthopedic doctors after Dr. Griz. One suddenly left the practice and I learned after my mom passed away that he ran off with his nurse. I learned that because I met one of his x-ray techs at the grocery store. She graduated high school with me, so we always chit-chatted when my mom went for her yearly exam and they took x-rays to ensure the hip prosthesis was still in place. My mom and I had seen that doctor and the nurse at a Macy’s store looking at men’s sweaters and thought it odd. He divorced his wife and moved to northern Michigan with the nurse. I didn’t like her last orthopedic doctor at all – he’d stand there after a brief exam and dictate his notes with us still in the room. Bad form to do that in my opinion.
My boss went to the Cleveland Clinic for what’s called an “executive physical” – he’s done that two years in a row. It is an all-day round of physicals with every type of doctor you can imagine. Then after all the exams and bloodwork, you get the results and recommendations. It is very thorough, but then they refer you to local doctors for any issues that were detected for follow-up.
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Stories about doctors always make me want to stay away from them more and more.
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I agree Peggy and I know I should go and have a physical as heart disease runs in my mom’s side of the family, but instead I eat healthy 99% of the time and log a lot of miles walking. Once I can’t walk as much due to bad weather, I will use my exercise bike. But I sit way too many hours due to working from home, then I log off from work and am here another four or five hours catching up on social media and blogging. My grandmother and seven of her eight siblings died from heart problems, one at age 18 from a leaky heart valve. My grandmother had a massive heart attack after battling heart disease for years. My mom had an irregular heart beat, but with her other more significant issues, that was the least of her health worries.
This is part of my fear of getting COVID as symptoms from long COVID can involve heart issues. My neighbor, who is younger than me (61) had COVID at the onset of the pandemic and has had long-COVID and then a heart attack earlier this year … that worries me a lot.
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Heart disease runs in my family too. Always so many health problems to worry about.
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Yes, there is Peggy … I never used to be such a worrywart. Our fog, for the second day in the row, is like pea soup. I did not get out until about 1:30 yesterday … today I have tons of leaves to rake (none which are my own) for yard waste collection tomorrow. Good exercise at least. Fitting it into my schedule, not so great. I am going to try getting caught up a big in Reader this morning.
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Snow? Snow? Agh! so not ready for that!
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Me neither Kate. I don’t think we got those snowflakes, but we have rain over the next two days and everyone gets snow flurries mixed in with the rain. Way too early for any snow. We had a gorgeous Sunday – now this. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is getting 18 inches of snow through Tuesday mid-day.
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I saw that on the news. Wow!
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But 70 the end of the week! Need two wardrobes handy.
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They really are bullheaded, Linda. They stop traffic in my area all the time!
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It is amazing to watch them Pam. On the roadway, they amble along and create a backup as they cross back and forth or pause in the middle of the street. It’s funny to watch (unless you are in a hurry).
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So wonderful place and beautiful geese 😍😍😍
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It is very picturesque here Fairy Queen and one of my favorite parks to visit. There were so many geese, I could not begin to even count them!
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What fun to kayak your way through the geese. I can only imagine what the geese were thinking. Nobody got pecked? You remind me of a day when I was driving home from work and the big buck pronghorn stood in the middle of the road while all his lady friends made their way across. No one was acting fussed about it, they were just fun the watch.
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I can’t imagine kayaking through the geese Zazzy. I’ve never kayaked as I don’t know how to swim, but standing there watching the kayakers and geese, the geese did not seem fazed in the least by all those kayaks. Nobody got pecked that I could tell. The geese are really fractious when they have their goslings nearby at the Park where I walk daily. They hiss and flap their wings at the walkers, so I usually go off the path to appease them and also to take pictures – the rest of the time they are usually well behaved and stay to themselves. I would like to see the big buck pronghorn with his lady friends march across the street – just glimpsing nature like this is such a treat.
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Hi Zazzy – I was thinking of you when I read this story. I’ll send the link separately in case it goes to your SPAM so you find it – some days I have a ton of SPAM to go thru and I worry I’ll miss a legitimate comment. Anyway, what you wrote about the pronghorn and his lady friends, plus you’ve told me in the past about seeing bison at Yellowstone when you spent a lot of time there. Scary stuff in this story and video, but heck … respect their space, although it didn’t appear she was all that close to the group.
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Here is the link about the woman and the bison. I’ve tangled with a few male mute swans in my day and they are pretty formidable out of the water. That was enough for me. 🙂
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Texas-woman-bison-attack-TikTok-17514767.php?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral
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We warn tourists and I’m sure they do in Texas as well. Tourists always seem to think they know better. Don’t approach the wildlife. You have to have a snowmobile that can go at least 50 mph if you want to snowmobile in Yellowstone during the winter – that’s because those great big placid looking bovine can move damn fast.
Leave them alone and they will generally leave you alone. If she had just sat down or stood still and waited for them to clear the area instead of continuing to move up on them she would probably be fine. I was at least pleased that she didn’t blame the bison.
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She can thank her lucky stars she was injured by only ONE bison and not the rest of the group. I read this on Twitter and I am not on TikTok, so I don’t know if she is usually this reckless. Yes, amazingly she did not blame the bison and hopefully her message gets through to others. There was a bison incident not long ago with a person who wanted a bison selfie. I was innocently taking pictures of a pair of Mute Swans who were far from shore where I stood, when the male paddled over and was diving for food, then suddenly it was climbing up the embankment and came after me. It was icy and snowy and I backed up carefully and tossed it peanuts which it stopped to eat and forgot about following me and I got out of Dodge!
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great shots Linda! We call them “Cobra chickens”! They’ll lash out atcha!
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Thanks Wayne – I think the goose in the header image was calling the shots for the groups of geese. What a treat to see this convoy of geese going one way and the kayakers the other way and a peaceful “traffic jam” through it all. I didn’t see any hissing … the geese were well behaved. I think they are more fractious on land, especially when they have their goslings. I like that “Cobra chickens”. 🙂
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I think the Geese feel more vulnerable on land and so are more “assertive”.
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I agree with you Wayne. They were still awaiting their flight feathers to come in, so more vulnerable to begin with. The water is better for them to escape. They are feistier on land, especially with their goslings in tow. It was a beautiful sight to see.
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Quite a change in the weather today. I’m not quite ready to switch from brisk but pleasant to downright cold! I was at the beach park yesterday and it was beautiful, although many of the leaves have fallen already. I’ll have to check the forecast – I didn’t know about the snow…..ignorance is bliss .
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It’s too early for any talk of snow Joni, even flurries. We got rain instead, but it stopped when I was ready to go out and walk. We are getting a rain/snow flurries mixture over the next two days. Yes, nothing like yesterday was it? I went to Heritage Park yesterday after Council Point Park earlier in the morning. The maple trees were glowing in red and yellow tones and I took a ton of pictures at the Botanical Gardens – they had lots of harvest decor.
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I was going to go for a short walk before supper but it was raining. I did put the winter ER kit in my car though, and got my boots out and mittons/gloves/hat – it’s good to be prepared.
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It was not very nice weather today. I had the HVAC tech come for the furnace check-up and he got here around 5:00 p.m. and it was raining mixed with snow. He came in with some snowflakes on his jacket. I should do that too, though I never go out in snow/ice, (although in January I got caught in that snow that put down a slippery inch before I could get home. They were predicting a late afternoon snowfall and it arrived five hours early).
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Oh now….we never had that, just a cold miserable rain for two days. I had my furnace checked in August and there was no howling noise that I blogged about last Halloween, but lately it’s started up again….sigh….it’s not bad enough for him to come back yet….maybe it will work it’s way out after Halloween!
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Oh, you got your computer back earlier – you lucked out. We had a cold miserable rain and gusty too today. It is always something Joni and it just wears on you sometime. At least, knock on wood, it was all good yesterday for my furnace visit and that is good since the warranty expired in June this year and they don’t offer an extended warranty.
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Yes…..it’s always something……and it does wear you down. I feel like I go from crisis to crisis…..half the world lacks common sense and I’m tired of thinking for other people.
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You have to listen to the news to know what’s going on but the news wears me down. In Detroit, about 15 miles from me, two barricaded gunmen today … on actually was a barricaded women with multiple guns. This is every day and today in our city forum there was a pitbull attack on another dog, fighting in the street and apparently pretty bloody. I worry about one being loose when I walk. I’ve been taking the car to the Park to give it a run, but I’d rather just walk back-and-forth and will once it gets bad weather. What we need to contend with in our lives these days is scary.
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We don’t have much crime here….that I know of…..the usual drug seeking/robbery to get drug money criminal activity, but not near me, thank God.
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People say to me “why do you listen to the news because it is so depressing these days?” I answer “because I need to know what is going on around me!” I guess so I can worry more. I saw in our City neighborhood forum on Facebook where two dogs were fighting in the street. The larger dog was on a leash, but no owner. The smaller dog was biting it. Someone took a photo of the two dogs. A fellow blogger was walking in her neighborhood, the same walk she does daily, in a quiet neighborhood in the mountains of North Carolina (near Asheville) and was attacked by a neighbor’s dog. The bite looked scary in her post … she had to go to urgent care. I worry about dogs running loose too. I drove a lot over this weekend (120 miles which is a lot for me) trying to get out and about in this beautiful weather. People zipping in and out of lanes, cutting in front of others … I was glad to be home.
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Just heard a podcast of this on my news station so searched for the story. I sure hope they are wrong. Will send the link in a separate comment.
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This will not make your day either Joni:
https://www.audacy.com/wwjnewsradio/news/local/heres-what-forecasters-predict-for-this-winter-in-michigan
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I was just on the weathernetwork site and it said another wild winter for the west, but normal or above for central Canada? Do they really even know?
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I was kind of surprised to read that report yesterday, because I understood we were having a La Nina Winter so would expect less snow and more rain/freezing rain and not as brutal temps. So I agree with you – do they really know?
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There was a lot of talk about the jet stream….I tuned it out after awhile. It’s all just a guess.
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Yes, they don’t really know. They had the long-range forecast when it was the first day of Fall. They got that right as they said we’d have a warm Fall, but then, in balance – half of it has been really warm and beautiful and then a good chunk of it has been cold. They said this week we would go from below average to above average in the course of one day.
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I just checked the next week forecast – it’s strange we haven’t had a frost yet. My welts came back after two days in the sun with short sleeves, but I had stopped my antihistamine as I thought I was better……now back to itchy again. I was hoping to get some leaf shots tomorrow before they all fall off.
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That’s too bad Joni – at least this is likely the end of the warm weather so the sun won’t be bothering you and causing any more welts, so that’s a good thing. You have to back on the antihistamine or just deal with the welts which hopefully will go away once it is colder and your arms aren’t exposed? We will get cold after Wednesday here Joni – that is supposed to be an all-day rain. I have taken a lot of photos of the leaves and I think it was one of the best years for leaf colors. They said our peak was last week and this week, but I think our peak has passed here last weekend. I went to Elizabeth Park yesterday hoping to get some golden leaves from the Oaks shots, but they were still on the tree, but brown and dry, or on the ground and in some cases wilted. A lot of the marshes and lagoons are dried up – amazing to see this and it was in every marsh/lagoon I went to. I walked a little over 14 miles this weekend and am pooped.
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That’s a long way. I think our leaves have peeked too, I checked my leaf file and some turned out, but others not so great. I’m hoping to have a new camera on Wed……but then I’ll have to learn howto use it, and Nov. is the time of year I take the fewest pics. I’m buying it from a camera shop – it’s a Panasonic and has a 30X zoom plus the old fashioned viewfinder for sunny days. I have been having trouble uploading pics from both my cell phone and my old (2005) digitial into Pictures. It does not let me change the destination and if I create a new folder it just aborts the whole thing. The computer tech guy said several other people had mentioned that. I wonder if they did a photos upgrade and something got changed? Are you havingany problems with photos? It will put them into the General Picture folder but then I have to manually move them to other folders.
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Yes, they were top peak last week and week before around here – I like the Maples best. That is great news about the camera Joni, especially all that zoom. I only have 12X zoom on my digital compact. I like the idea of an old-fashioned viewfinder because on sunny days, you see your reflection in the glass when you try to point and shoot. I have never uploaded pics from a cellphone and my first camera with the 4X zoom came with photo software which I had to put onto the desktop and then it had a USB cable that you connected the camera to the hard drive. When I got this compact digital, it had no connection cord nor software and I learned you were to either pop the card into the computer or buy a card reader, so I opted to get the card reader in case the photo card got damaged putting it into the side of the laptop. That works well and I leave it in the computer all the time. I am still using Windows 7 so it may be different. I think we will have a nice weekend this weekend. Go take pics of Halloween decor in the neighborhood!
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I never thought about geese and kayakers in the same body of water. I can see how there could be… issues. Autumn is breathing down our necks here, possible snow tonight. We’ve jumped from summer capris to winter jeans in about two days.
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It was quite a sight to see Ally. I’ve seen a few geese in the canal along with a few kayakers, but not that many of both. The geese were gathered there awaiting their flight feathers, so they stay close to the water. It looked a little scary to me as those kayaks seem so featherlight. Same here with the weather. It was just gorgeous yesterday and now blustery with snow mixed with rain the next two days – way too early for any kind of snow.
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Those geese! They can be very mean lol. We canoe a lot and they don’t like us going where they are although sometimes they are stretched across the river and we don’t have a choice lol
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I am convinced they kept doing this on purpose Susan. At least in your canoe you have a little more protection around you with a canoe – the kayaks seem so light and vulnerable to me, but then I don’t know how to swim either. 🙂 Are you back from camping and traveling for good now? I’ll bet you will have some wonderful picture-laden posts for us to see.
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Yes we have been home about 10 days. Our last trip was a month in Algonquin Park. I am working on my photos now! I have a lot lol
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That sounds fun, a month in your favorite park. I hope you got lots of moose and loon shots, just some of my favorites since I’ve followed you.
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I did get moose and loon shots! I hope to post some soon
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That’s great – I liked all your shots, but the moose, loons and the mergansers were my favorites of all of them. In your travels, did you ever see Sandhill Cranes? I was lucky to see them at Lake Erie Metropark this Summer – never have seen them there before as they are the more northern metroparks. What a treat! I’ll send you a separate link.
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Your Sandhill Crane photos are great! And yes we have them in Ontario, mostly northern Ontario, we saw a ton there the last couple of summers. Some photographer friends of mine were up north last week photographing them. Hundreds in the same spots waiting to migrate. They are one of my favourites 🙂
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Thanks Susan – I was excited to see them as they are not in my area. I went back to this park several times this Summer, but never saw them again – that was odd they stopped there and I don’t usually walk that way, but the big pool was closed as it had a crack in it, so I went a different way to cross the park, so lucked out. About two weeks ago the Sandhill Cranes were predicted to migrate through Michigan, so I returned again that weekend, but didn’t see them. A fellow blogger, who has been on a blogging break for about three years, lives in Nebraska and he used to go to the Central Platte River Valley every mid-April when the Sandhill Cranes migrate and stop there. He had lots of photos of them filling the sky and then coming down to graze. He’d take a couple of vacation days and spend them all day watching the cranes. What a wonderful sight to see, so I’m glad you got to see them as well.
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Here are my Sandhill Cranes pics Susan.
https://lindaschaubblog.net/2022/08/24/sandhill-cranes-at-lake-erie-metropark-wordless-wednesday-the-three-musketeers/
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The interaction of humans and geese was amusing. Great post!
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Thanks Anne – it was fun watching them.
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I would be worried about passing so many geese if I were a kayaker too! I know from trying to run by geese, they can be mean!!! I have been hissed at and even chased by geese who felt like I invaded their space.
That is a LOT of geese in one place. I bet there is a lot of goose poop nearby.
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The geese don’t budge an inch Laurie – they figure they own the canal as well as the road! There were even more in the canal area behind me, but this was more picturesque with the rocks. The geese were awaiting their flight feathers, so they stay close to the water in the event of land predators. Yes, I had to pick my way gingerly to avoid stepping in it!
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Fab photos of the goose convoy and a bit of the kayak convoy as well, Linda! I would have loved to be on the water when the geese honked by! Sigh, you are right, two more days of “summer” here then the bottom falls out. I managed to drive into some neighborhoods yesterday that have fall colors on their trees, so I may have to live with those, as our winter blast begins this weekend. How do you go from 73F for the high one day then 47F (predicted) 3 days later? Only in Northeast Washington!
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Glad you liked the photos Terri. I thought you might enjoy being part of the goose convoy and kayak convoy as you thought the SUPing guy near the whale looked fun. The group of kayakers were laughing when the geese formed the straight line. I have seen SUPs in the canal too, but not with that many geese. I may have gotten pictures of them on one of my many jaunts to
Elizabeth Park this past Summer. We had some snow mixed with rain today, but nothing stuck to the ground and we are going to be 70+ on Saturday!
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Jeeze, cute Geese 🙂 Definately the non-scarry kind!
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Glad you liked them Jeanine and they are actually nice-looking birds once you get past the loud-mouth that was honking at the top of this post!!
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What a great scene, Linda! So many geese and so many kayakers set in a backdrop of summery shades of blue and green. The bridge is pretty, too. Fantastic photos! I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many geese in one place before. But it looks like the traffic jam sorted itself out well enough, even if it did require a lot of yielding. 🙂
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It sure was amazing to see this Barbara. The geese are always in the canal, all year around, but at this particular time, they were awaiting their flight feathers, so there were more than usual gathered in and around the canal to safely escape land predators since they couldn’t fly. They just swarmed the canal. The kayakers seemed okay navigating around the geese, since they refused to yield. 🙂
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Holy cow that’s a lot of birds, Linda! Then again, that’s a lot of kayakers too (at least in the last photo). Must be a popular place to paddle around. “Convoy” may displace “Roamin’ in the Gloamin'” in my head, thank you very much. And “madding crowd” has always been a favorite phrase for me. “Far from the Madding Crowd” was a wonderful period romance; one I need to watch again.
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It was incredible to see Dave. The crowd of geese was because they awaited their flight feathers so most shoreline parks had lots of geese in June through August as they are able to make a hasty exit to the water if they spot a land predator. “Convoy” – I listened to it as I was going to include it in the post at first and I could remember all the words. It was pretty popular back in the day. Hope “Convoy” corrected your first earworm. I like that expression as well and use it sometimes but learned today it is “madding” not “maddening” thanks to you. I now need to search my blog and correct those incidences. I just looked at the movie as I have not seen it nor read the novel and it does look wonderful.
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That looked like a good day to NOT be in a kayak. I have heard enough stories of aggressive geese on human turf, I would really want to avoid them where they are most maneuverable.
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I agree JP … I can’t swim so I wouldn’t climb into a kayak, but if I was paddling along in a lightweight and easy-to-tip-over kayak and saw all those geese, I’d turn and go the opposite way. They were bullheaded and were not going to move for anyone!
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