Cottage Daze 2-Book Bundle by Ross James

Author:Ross, James [Ross, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2012-03-28T14:00:00+00:00

In the Great Outdoors —

On Nature

I guess it is inevitable, when you take people out of their comfortable city homes and return them to a little more natural environment at the cottage, then mix in a dash of nature and a pinch of wildlife, that you have a situation ripe for humour!

Good for the Goose

In nature’s scheme, spring is a time of new life, and our cottage environment puts us in touch with this daily. Millions of creatures are born — groundhog, beaver, muskrat, mink, marten, mouse, otter, deer, and wolf. The migrating birds have returned and gather their sticks and twigs for nests. Some settle for the cottage eaves, holes in trees, or the sweeping branches of the beautiful shade trees that support our hammock. Others will move into the nesting boxes that we charitably supply. Water birds have hidden in the lakeside thickets that fringe our cottage shoreline, the mothers sitting cautious and still.

Soon, broods of goslings, ducklings, merganser chicks, and baby loons appear, gracing our serene bays, following clumsily after their mothers along shores, hitching a ride on a parent’s back, or swimming single file behind their guardian.

As such, spring is a wonderful time of the year for watching wildlife. The young are out in force, and there is a certain beauty in observing the rearing and development of even the commonest of animals. The Canada geese that we seldom look at twice — only noticing them when we curse them as we gingerly wade through the minefield of their goosey deposits on shore — suddenly become the focus of our fascination when they have a young gaggle of goslings in tow.

Such is the case each spring. We don’t even get a glimpse of the youngsters at first, but can tell from the posturing of their parents that they have arrived. The gander will stand on guard at the shore, neck arched in a display of aggressiveness. The mother feeds while he watches, and then the roles are reversed. Never will they graze at the same time.

This year, for two nights running, we are awakened from our sleep by the honking and squawking of the panicked geese. Then, when the tiny goslings make their first appearance, we are saddened that there are only two, when usually there are six or eight. Perhaps the blame lies with the gulls, who seem to be hanging around in large numbers. Or, maybe it is the great blue heron that stalks the shores. Certainly the loons cannot be blamed this time, as the baby geese are not even old enough to get their feet wet. With the two surviving goslings it is much easier to become attached.

We watch them each morning; they seem to double in size daily. They are precocious brats, seemingly intent on giving their parents a hard time. The two demons wait until their protective parents look away and then run for it. One scampers across the little wooden bridge that crosses the inlet stream, seemingly moving faster than possible with his small and scrawny legs.

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