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Friday, October 11, 2013

Get Your Geese in a Row

We live very near a huge lake - Lake Whatcom.  It is right in the middle of town and extends miles up into the woods.  There are parks along the lake, and many houses.  We drive past the lake, sometimes several times a day, and I always look for an opportunity to get more photos of it.

Early one morning - I could see the Canada Geese on the logs that separate the swimming area from the boating area.  Quick, park the car (there is no place to park by the geese, and traffic is heavy all day at this location), get out of car, gather camera and tripod, wait for traffic, across the street, find the best location - ok - Canada Geese.


Some of these geese will migrate south - some will stay for the winter. I wonder how they decide?

Some days the water of Lake Whatcom, just a few blocks from our house is still and flat, this day there was a little wind to ripple the water


Most of the geese were sleeping


Some were tending to their feathers




With the sun coming up behind the geese, I got good silhouettes of them







Is he the guard?

Someday I'd like to stay long enough to watch them all get into the water- that would be exciting!!!  I'll take a lawn chair!




35 comments:

  1. How they decide who leave and who stay ? They flip a coin perhaps... ^^

    A beautiful serie ; I love observing migration birds too.

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  2. So many geese all scrunched together on one log. Amazing sight.

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  3. Beautiful pictures, I love to see the Canada Geese arrive in the UK, I wonder if any of these will arrive and stay near to us at Broadwater Lake, now that's a strange thought as we will never get a chance to meet up in person.

    Thank you so much for Joining in with this week's "Smile it's Friday" at its new home xxxx

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  4. Beautiful colection of nature...Excellent photos...

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  5. We have canada geese here in huge numbers JoAnn - they can be a real nuisance grazing in the fields.

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  6. Living by Lake Ontario we we see plenty of geese!! They make such a mess plus I worry about them as they cross the busy streets near the lake.

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  7. I've often wondered that as well... how DO they decide?? Great shot, all lined up like that... Thank you for coming by sharing your creative photography on Weekly Top Shot #104!

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  8. Olá amiga, fotos magníficas! O lago azul e os gansos...Maravilhoso lugar! Meu filho mais velho está perto daí. Abraços de Portugal . Ailime

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  9. wow so many of our Canadian Geese! love the close ups...

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  10. Great shots of the geese sleeping on the log. I guess they are resting up for their flight south.

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  11. This is wonderful. with all the extreme changes in our weather in Alberta, the poor geese are flying back and forth overhead all winter, honking "What the heck?" lol

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  12. Magnificent photography ~ what a beautiful place to live ~ happy day to you ~ carol ^_^

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  13. JOAnn, what an exciting sight. That is funny how they decide who gets to go. Earlier this summer we were in another county scouting out garage sales and a whole gaggle of Canadian Geese crossed the road in front of the car. Of course, by the time I got my camera out they have congregated on someone's lawn. But, I did get some shots. Will show them sometime in the future..Happy Weekend..Judy

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  14. Nice shots! And how do they decide who sleeps and who stand guard? And I find it interesting that starting in August they will gather up in flocks and fly around in the evenings. Migration practice? Checking out the flock's form??

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  15. I always wondered why some go and why some stay as well. It happens here too. Maybe their like some people who live elsewhere in winter and some of us don't. :)
    Lovely series!

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  16. Nice picture, I always wonder how the birds decide where and when to meet. Which ones decide to stay here and which ones go south. Nature is amazing.
    Nancy Jo

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  17. I love to see the skeins of migrating geese flying over, it's a magical sight and sound. Usually it's the sound that alerts me to their presence. It must be a fantastic sight to see them land or take off.

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  18. Most of them stay here for the winter. I have heard that because we feed them they stay. They are very abundant here.

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  19. Nicely done with the progression of the series♫ My Top Shot: http://lauriekazmierczak.com/dash-of-orange/

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  20. They are in a row!! Nice pictures.

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne.

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  21. Great photos. It's a pretty special sight seeing geese in flight. x

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  22. What a perfect place for them to roost! You got some great photos of them relaxing, JoAnn. I love the calm water. xo

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  23. Great studies and such a peaceful location. Glad you were persistent.

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  24. I couldn't resist following your link from Crafty Gardener, I love geese!
    They are flying over us right now, in South West England, on their migration south. Beautiful.

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  25. What a long line of geese. We are hearing the honking of the geese as they flock together to start their journey south.

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  26. Wonderful photos of the flock sunbathing on the log...we are still seeing geese in central Alberta but it won 'to be for much longer. I scrolled back and enjoyed your post with all the photos of Mount Baker. It is etched in my memory as I grew up in Victoria, BC and was visible from many beaches. I've also seen it from the air on flights to Victoria. It's a beautiful mountain,

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  27. Yes, just take a lawn chair and sit for a while. It's so beautiful there where you live. I haven't seen your lake, but I used to spend parts of my summer on Samish Island and my sister went to school in Bellingham. (We lived in both Seattle and Vancouver BC when I was growing up, so I know the area.)

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  28. That's quite a family reunion they're having! Very scenic landscape. I can see why they like it there. :-)

    Thanks for your visit and comment on my "Which Way" post.

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