Local Ducks & Geese

Me and Mom went to feed some ducks and geese recently. That was a huge blast from the past. I don't know if I've mentioned it on this blog, but I used to be a member of a flock of geese. Learned their sign language, earned their trust, and eventually they'd come and hang out with me even if I didn't have anything for them, and they let me play with their goslings, while they were really aggressive to everyone else. That's a really lengthy story, though. A major fan-favourite. But I'll get side-tracked.

Anyway, we fed them frozen vegetables (that were thawed) and some whole-grain bread with lots of seeds. Now, I'm normally against feeding bread to waterfowl... It's not good for them, but these guys have already stayed almost the duration of the winter. Somebody's graffitiing "feed the ducks" all over the neighborhood... And, the ducks at least, were obviously accustomed to being fed. These guys are completely human-dependant... Our feeding them won't make or break them, and if they were going to be retaught to be independent, this would be the very worst time of year to do that.

Anyway, as I said, the ducks were eager to get at the food. Where we fed them was a platform that hangs above the river, quite a distance up, so we were throwing down. The bread floated. The vegetable sunk. We threw the vegetables onto an ice platform, but it took them quite a while to find it.

After a while, three geese decided to join in. They flew in, in formation, like fighter jets. After they'd got some, they called out to the other geese that it was good stuff, but the other's remained too flighty to come into the fray.

But what was a real find was, there was a really strange bird. It had the colouration of a loon, but the body of a duck. It was smaller than a duck, though, and it's head was different. It had a crest, and it's beak was long and thin. It could swim underwater, too.

I've seen this bird, before. I'm glad to know it wasn't just passing through. Strange that it's on it's own.

After some research, it looks like it was a "hooded merganser". I saw a red-breasted merganser by chance in Katimavik, and that was a similarly baffling experience.

Okay, I'm sorry, I have to go to bed. I know I haven't been blogging as much, but if I don't go to bed now, I'll wake up at 12:00 again, tomorrow. I'll try and be more assertive with my Internet demand.