Moving Day

Yesterday as I headed out the door with my camera I was greeted with this scene on the street in front of our house…

The goose family decided to leave the pond at the bottom of the hill across the street and head to the pond behind our house. I felt so lucky to see the goslings up close that I abandoned my plans for a walk to follow them as they slowly made their way to the pond behind our house.

This morning they were still beside the pond when I woke up, the goslings huddled close to one of their parents. Currently they have disappeared from view. I have hopes that they decided to migrate back to the pond across the street. While I enjoy watching them I don’t look forward to navigating through piles of goose poop in the back yard.

Yesterday afternoon I also saw a mallard mama with a whole bunch of ducklings following her in the pond. I think they left the pond as I haven’t seen them again.

May is prime duckling watch time for me. I always hope that the young ones survive the predation of snapping turtles, hawks, owls, and foxes. I know that they often become a meal for another creature and that that is the way of nature. But still I hope…

Hope Springs Eternal

I leave you today with more gosling photos to enjoy and with one of my favorite Mary Oliver poems…

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

— Mary Oliver