Tree Geese

If there’s one thing that will lift the spirits of any Canadian it’s seeing and hearing  the return of the Canada geese in the spring. The geese practically shout at us, “Winter’s over, winter’s over!” In the fall when we see them heading south we hear, “Hurry, hurry, not much time left, winter’s coming, winter’s coming!”

I call the Canada geese who live on our lake ours because I know they come back to the same nesting place year after year, and, after updating my goose knowledge on the Internet, I confirmed my suspicion that their offspring also return to their original home.

Nothing that I read prepared me for a picture my son sent to me though. He lives near a river and often walks in its flood plain. One day he heard that typical goose honking sound but none were flying overhead or swimming on the river. They were roosting, yes roosting, in the trees. Go figure.

These pics are not photoshopped.

From Hinterland Who’s Who

http://www.hww.ca/en/wildlife/birds/canada-goose.html 

      Canada Geese are readily recognized by their irregular “V” formation as they pass overhead in spring and fall. They can often be heard as well, since there is usually a steady chorus of honking. Their calls range from the deep ka-lunk of the medium and large races to the high-pitched cackling voices of smaller races. Researchers have determined that Canada Geese have about 13 different calls ranging from loud greeting and alarm calls to the low clucks and murmurs of feeding geese. 

Goslings begin communicating with their h while still in the egg. Their calls are limited to greeting “peeps,” distress calls, and high-pitched trills signalling contentment. Goslings respond in different ways to different adult calls, indicating that the adults use a variety of calls with a range of meanings to communicate with their young.

Habitat and Habits

You can find Canada Geese on almost any type of wetland, from smell ponds to large lakes and rivers. However, Canada Geese spend as much or more time on land as they do in water. 

Canada Geese breed in a wide range of habitats. They prefer low-lying areas with great expanses of wet grassy meadows and an abundance of ponds and lakes that serve as refuges from foxes and other land predators. The most northerly geese breed on the treeless tundra of the Arctic. Below the treeline, the geese nest in the open boreal forest, with its scattered stands of stunted spruce and tamarack. In southern Canada and throughout the United States, nesting Canada Geese are at home in many places, from sheltered mountain streams and prairie pothole ponds to golf courses and urban parks. During fall and winter, Canada Geese favour agricultural land where vast fields of cereal grains and other crops provide abundant food and relative safety from predators.

Family bonds are strong in Canada Geese—goslings stay with their parents for a full year, returning to the breeding grounds with them after their first winter. Migrating flocks in fall and spring thus consist of a number of families travelling together. 

While most Canada Geese are territorial during the nesting period, they congregate in flocks of several hundred to several thousand when they are migrating or are on the wintering areas. 

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mltipton.blogspot.com,https://www.facebook.com/Northof543/, April 14, 2019

The Conrad Caper

Our relationship with the RCMP has been very minimal. My husband’s Dad always said, “Avoid the police, lawyers and the court system if at all possible, they can mess up your life!” Good advice. The best way to accomplish this is to obey the law to the letter, and of course all of us do that - right? On the other side of the coin though, we want the police to be available when we need them. But in rural Alberta, due to large distances from the RCMP detachment to the scattered farms in their area of control, they’re just too far away to be of much help in any sort of an emergency. 

Our first contact with the RCMP was early on in our back-to-the-land experiment, probably in the late 70’s. A RCMP simply drove into our yard one day, to introduce himself, to see what was going on I suppose. Our goats immediately welcomed him by joyously bounding onto the hood of his cruiser, then the top, then the back. Goats are amazingly sure footed critters. Did you know they can walk along that little ledge at the top of a car door, with the window closed, and not fall off? 

Besides our nimble nanny goats we had a billy named Conrad. He had a rack of horns that made him intimidating to most folks, even us. Our son used to “fight the monster” with wooden sword and shield which probably didn’t help to foster his softer side. Conrad added his welcome to the RCMP constable by pinning him up against the house. We apologized for Conrad's manners, rescued the  RCMP and after a short but polite conversation he left. We never experienced any unsolicited interaction after that.

But we did raise the alarm when our horse harness was stolen. This was a big deal for us. We got our firewood using horses and we used them in logging both fence posts and trees for income. We could hardly believe anyone would do such a thing! But there was no doubt that it was gone from the shed where we kept it hung. So we called the RCMP to report the theft. The constable arrived the same day we called and was polite and understanding as he took our statement, but we had little hope that our harness thief would ever be found and arrested.

We worried and fretted as to what we could do. Our harness was old, not fancy but serviceable, and we needed it! Finding another affordable set would not be easy. A few fretful days passed, then one sunny afternoon when my husband wandered out behind the barn to take a pee he noticed some straps hanging from a tree several yards away...... Uh oh. There was our “stolen” harness! We deduced that Conrad was the culprit. He must have gotten wrapped up in the harness while using its hanging rack for a scratching post, carried it off tangled in his horns and rubbed it off on the tree. With no small amount of embarrassment we called the RCMP detachment to update the “case”.

We later heard that the infamous “Conrad Caper” was recorded in the detachments’s newsletter, no doubt to ensure that future RCMP investigators would be properly prepared for the real possibility that horned thieves could be hiding in central Alberta.

mltipton.blogspot.com, https://www.facebook.com/Northof543/, 

April 14, 2019

Squats

Like nearly everyone who has lived long enough, I have a bad back which can colour my day gray sometimes. Basically, if I use my back, it hurts. If I fully support it in my recliner it doesn’t hurt, but it doesn’t help either. My son casts a worrisome glance at his mother now and then and, being an energetic fitness enthusiast, he’s offered up suggestions on some simple exercises I could do to preserve my well being as I tread gradually toward old age. He’s suggested some easy stretches and lately he’s talking a lot about strength, suggesting some standing push-ups and squats done quite slowly. It’s the reps and the slowness that builds the strength (and bones).

I’m not saying I’m doing these things regularly but I do think he’s right. My intentions are in the right place. I also recently had a chat with a physiotherapist who purported that the reason so many North Americans have bad backs is that we don’t squat. The knees should bend every time you do anything toward, near or on the ground. That means when you pick up your dogs dish to fill it, when you get a pot from a lower cupboard, when you pick up clothing tossed on the floor ... every single time you bend over you should instead be squatting, either partially or all the way down. Whew!

Well yeah, great idea but when I squat there’s a distinct chance I’m going to have trouble getting back up! (First excuse coming from my lazy body and brain.) But I’m guessing that if I made a habit change I’d slowly get stronger. I have been consciously noticing how often I bend my back instead of my knees, it’s dozens of times a day! I even weed my garden just leaning over most of the time. Yikes, I’m doing myself in!

Lots of people who work hard physically will tell you they’re getting enough exercise already, but quite often, even though the muscles they are using get stronger, the repeated motions they’re doing in their work can eventually cause problems, and lack of tone in associated muscles can contribute to a breakdown. Also work related muscle use is often sporadic, done cold without warming up the muscles required to do the work, done just enough to over-strain. How many hard working people do you know with a bad back? 

I think this Physiotherapist and my son are onto something. So, I guess it’s time to pry myself from my comfy recliner and do some squatting. Could also stand to lose some (lots) of weight, eat less sweets, walk more, read less, get off the internet, get creative, deep clean my house.... Whoa! Little steps, don’t want to bury myself in lofty goals. Squatting instead of bending - this I can do.

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mltipton.blogspot.com, https://www.facebook.com/Northof543/, April 6, 2019