Wednesday’s Photos
Canada Geese in Distress
Last Sunday we woke up from the howling of an Arctic blast of cold air, which had brought down the temperature to -6 C. But there was no cloud in the sky and the sun was shining brightly. So my wife and I decided to venture outside for our walk along the lakeshore at the boat dock. The stiff wind blowing from the north whipped up the lake surface and produced giant white caps. We felt like retreating back to our cozy home. But when we saw Canada geese trying to stay warm by sticking their heads into their feathers, we had to take a few photos to document their discomfort and distress. Add to this scene the lack of food which normally is available from the grass on the local golf course, you get a picture of how these poor creatures have to suffer. Let’s hope for the timely arrival of spring!
The Peter and Gertrud Klopp Family 
Now thats “brrrrrrr cold”! But you could take wonderful pictures. Thanks for showing them.
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Bitter cold indeed! My wife and I are quite hardy, but with the wind chill it was almost unbearable.
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Poor geese! They usually come to Denmark and the south of Sweden during winter. This lot must have been very optimistic … is there anything one can feed them with?
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This cold snap must have come as a big surprise to our Canada geese. Fortunately, it is warming up a little now.
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You took some great photos – – I am sorry to see these birds in distress, they’re astonishingly hardy, but their energy reserves are probably pretty low by this time of the year. We’re up above the freezing mark in Milwaukee, but I’m guessing the nights up in the mountains where you are, must be considerably colder. So I’ll join you in wishing for Spring to really roll in soon!
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We could tell that the geese want to preserve their energy by not flying away. Thank you, Robert, for the kind comment!
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Peter, beautiful photos of the geese. It will get warmer. In the daytime, we in the Far North are enjoying temperatures above freezing in the daytime for the first time in many months, although we have much snow. Enjoy your day!
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That is good to hear that you are already above the freezing mark during the day. Thanks for the compliment!
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You are welcome!
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So schön!
Herzliche Grüße
Ulli
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Your photos are wonderful, but I suspect the geese aren’t in quite so much distress as you imagined. That’s a typical sleeping posture; many waterfowl rest their heads on their backs while they nuzzle their beaks into their back feathers. Sleeping that way, with their head tucked onto their backs, allows them to rest their neck muscles as well as conserving heat. It looks awkward to me, but it seems to work wonderfully well for the birds!
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I agree this is indeed the often observed sleeping posture. However, due to the extreme cold and a strong wind, they were trying to stay warm. These are wild geese and normally very wary of humans. Never before did they allow us to approach them so close. Thanks for the kind comment, my friend!
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OH, this made me so sad. I hate, hate, hate seeing animals suffer. (I hate seeing people suffer also, but somehow the innocence of animals and their inability to understand why they are in pain makes it seem worse.) I hope they’ve weathered the cold and that spring arrives soon. Fabulous photos!
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Today our region was warming up in the sunshine and the geese were their usual selves.
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Those are great photos, but I also feel sorry for the geese! Are you having an unusually cold Spring, or did these geese simply not migrate this year?
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We had a warm spell at the beginning of March. This may fooled the geese to venture into our more northern region.
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Such beauty. Nature is superiour. Stay safe my friends
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Very nice historical. Story’s i love reading all of it i have plenty of time i palmsprings. Thanks Peter very interesting. Greeting an your fam Helmuth
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Thank you, Helmuth! Greetings from Canada! Stay safe you and your family! Peter
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‘Arrival of spring’ is it? We are bout to end our short spring and launch into a 3-month annual adventure in a furnace.
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In that case, I would rather suffer in the cold.
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I would agree 🙂
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