Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Feeding the Birds

No school this week. After Ladies' prayer and Bible study, I took the kids (Ben, Hannah, Sara, and Alysa) down to Irondequoit Bay to feed the birds. Aside from the few pieces that Sara and Alysa ate, the birds consumed a whole loaf of sandwich white bread. They were hungry.
These geese look like regular farm geese. I don't know if they are a domesticated breed or indigenous to the area. I like them. They are prettier to me than the Canada geese.
The seagulls are noisy, grabby birds but not typically frightening, the swans on the other hand are quite intimidating. One was close enough that I thought he might try to take a piece out of me. I was wearing my winter jacket and didn't think it would hurt (although it might...) but I didn't want to lose my cool and make a fool out of myself by screaming or jumping around like an idiot. I backed off and tossed him some crumbs.
The seagulls are still walking around on what little ice is left near the shore. They put up a fuss and make all kinds of noise when there is food around. My favorite thing is to catch a photo of them in flight. With the wind blowing a little bit today, they were able to hover in the air quite nicely.
The Canada geese will hang out here at the shore for the entire year. As long as there is food and plenty of room to build a nest, they will stay. I've been hearing their calls the past few mornings when I am waking up. Spring can't be too far off when the geese are flying.
I missed getting a picture of the mallard ducks. They are a little more timid, I guess, than the other water foul and stay in a section of water where they are protected and things are a bit more calm. For the price of a loaf of bread we enjoyed a little time at the bay. The girls thought it was fun even if the swans were scary.

10 comments:

  1. I could've stolen one of these photos of you posted a little faster.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a beautiful set of pictures Martha....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Wanda!
    Bethany, your are welcome to borrow my photos. Funny we both went to feed the birds, albeit at different locations.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice thing to do on a sunny winter day! Nice photos, too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. You have such lovely photos of all the different birds you saw. I like the ones with the orange feet. I was chased by a swan once, so I think it's good that you steered clear of them! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was once again reminded of the obnoxiousness of seagulls today when one grabbed a sandwich from the hand of my friend Nancy, just as she removed it from the bag and went to take a bite. She didn't get any of it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey Martha, beautiful pictures of the birds at the bay! It makes me homesick. I didn't know there were swans there esp. in the winter. What a great way to spend with the kids. I bet it will be a good memory for them.

    Love ya, Ann

    ReplyDelete
  8. You are making memories. I should probably start making more memories... sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Swans are mean! lol They will snap and charge you in an instant. Well, okay. Really they are very protective of their mates and nests. So they are actually being good guard swans. Too funny that your goose looks just like Becca's. Love your sites. How do you manage to keep up with THREE???

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Amy, I really only keep up with this one. The other blogs are group blogs and I don't often post there.

    ReplyDelete