canada geese

All posts tagged canada geese

Glorious mornings

Posted by kenleighacres on February 25, 2012
Posted in: Ducks, Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, Llama, Photography, sheep. Tagged: , , , , , , . 9 Comments

We have woken up to a couple glorious mornings and nothing makes me happier than to open the blinds and see the sun shining!

It makes the sheep happy too!

My goal was to get an updated picture of all the lambs, but they had other things on their mind.  These lambs were munching on the blackberry leaves.

This group of lambs was enjoying the grass with Magoo.

This lamb was being a funny guy 🙂

Luckily, I can always count on Maelstrom to pose for me, thanks little buddy.  Their horns are really starting to grow.  After a bit of work, I did finally get new pictures of all the lambs.  They can be seen on our website – www.kenleigh-acres.com

After accomplishing that goal, it was time to go for a little walk and enjoy the morning.  Azera was enjoying the grass while her lambs soaked up the warmth from the sunshine.

 

The chickens were scratching for goodies…

and having their morning dust baths.

My favorite little birds on the farm, the quail, were out and about and in the mood to have their picture taken…doesn’t happen very often.

I said ‘good morning’ to the pair of ducks living on our pond.

The pair of geese that have been hanging out here thought I got a little too close for comfort and off they went.

The boys were doing what they do best this time of year…hanging out.

I’m glad we all enjoyed it while it was here because it is now pouring and supposed to continue for the next couple of days.  Hopefully the rain with trigger the next ewe to have her lambs!

Kate’s other job

Posted by kenleighacres on January 31, 2012
Posted in: Border Collie, Dogs, Farm Life. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 6 Comments

My border collie, Kate, is a huge help here on the farm…

she is wonderful with the moms and babies.

Even when the babies get a little too curious.

But she also has another job.  It is our duty to keep a local college free of geese.  Here is a little bit of information regarding hazing geese with border collies.  The most effective way to humanely control the goose population is to introduce a ‘predator’ into the environment.  Since it isn’t practical (or safe) to reintroduce wolves, coyotes, and foxes into commercial and residential areas, specially trained dogs are the natural answer.  Geese that are harassed on a regular schedule by border collies will seek a safer place to live and raise their young.  Geese are beautiful and I love watching them, but when each one of these guys…

is leaving 2-3 lbs. of waste a day, it gets nasty, pretty quick!  They also eat 2-5 lbs. of grass in a day – leaving a muddy, poop covered landscape behind them.   

Kate and I have been visiting the college for 3 years and the flock of geese that called this location home has decreased dramatically.  Unfortunately, it is the perfect place for flocks that are flying through to stop and take a break.   This gives Kate steady work and she loves it!

She is always looking, but we couldn’t find any geese on the ground today.

The sky was full of them.

and plenty in the pond, but nothing for my girl to focus her attention on.

That is, until these three flew in.

I love this goose and have been trying to get good pictures of it for quite a while. 

It is some sort of cross – the colors and patterns are so fun.

As an extra bonus, we had geese to chase when we got home as well.  I have been very careful to save our grass for my mammas and babies, there are plenty of empty fields in our area for these guys to get a free meal somewhere else!

Putting on a little show!

Posted by kenleighacres on March 16, 2011
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: , . 8 Comments

This time of year we always have a few geese hanging out on our pond.  The pair we have had recently have been very friendly, enjoying the leftover grain from our ducks.  Unfortunately a big bully came and chased them away…

 

I have never seen geese attack each other.  They were wrestling in mid-air and the sound was amazing!

All of the geese stayed away for a few days, but the big storm we had on Sunday brought back a big group of them.

Can you see the bully on the right?

He wasn’t happy unless he was chasing somebody, it made for quite the show!

They carried on this way for a couple hours.  Finally, the majority of them got sick of his antics and flew off…

I am happy to see that our nice pair is back!

Out the backdoor

Posted by kenleighacres on February 23, 2011
Posted in: family, Farm Life. Tagged: , , , . 8 Comments

My son and I have been sick, so we have been spending a lot of time looking out the backdoor. 

Luckily, we have a lot to look at! 

A pair of Canada geese.

They are here most of the time and have even started eating the leftover duck food. 

We have had a LOT of rain and the wild ducks are taking advantage of the extra water.

The ‘open’ (not bred) girls have been kicked out of the barn and are complaining to me daily.  They liked the cushy life and extra good food the mammas were getting.  I keep telling them there are sheep who don’t see green grass for months and they should feel very lucky 🙂

We have a trio of pheasants that are constantly teasing me.  I see them all of the time, but as soon as I put a camera up they are gone!  I finally got a couple of pictures of them.

Not the best pictures, but still sharable.  I love the roosters and all of their colors.

Probably the funnest to see, are the baby nutria!  I am not a fan of nutria, but the babies are kind of fun to watch.

I am FINALLY feeling better and my son should be feeling better soon after a trip to the doctor this morning.  Just in time for the forecasted snow!  I have mixed feelings about the snow, especially with more lambs due soon, but a little bit of snow would be fun.

There are geese everywhere!

Posted by kenleighacres on April 20, 2010
Posted in: Border Collie. Tagged: , , , , . 2 Comments

We had a great weekend – warm weather was abundant and it was starting to feel like Spring – and everytime I turned around, it seemed like I was seeing geese!!!

Kate and I made our usual rounds at the college.  Here she is looking across the track at some geese.  She has this job figured out!!!

What a great job this is!  I love listening to the geese and seeing them in flight.

The geese have called this field ‘home’ for quite awhile and are reluctant to leave… 

some more than others.

Most of them are paired up and are either sitting on nests or getting ready to…

and some have already hatched out their babies!  I attended a lure coursing practice on Sunday and there were two pairs of geese with goslings.

Our little pond has a pair of geese that fly in and spend most of the day here.  I would love to know where they go at night.

They are beautiful birds!

Unwelcome guests

Posted by kenleighacres on December 23, 2009
Posted in: Farm Life. Tagged: , . 4 Comments

Don’t get me wrong, I love wildlife – but when they come to dine on our newly seeded pastures, it doesn’t make me happy. 

We live near the grass seed capital of the world, can’t they find somewhere else to eat???

I’m talking about the beautiful Canada Goose.  We often have a pair or two enjoying our pond, but since we seeded our pastures this fall – this is a common sight…

There are different flocks that have been digging holes in the ground, some are very leery and will fly off as soon as I am in the driveway and some, like this group today, I have to practically jump in the middle of them to get them to fly away.

It looks like they have a little tagalong 🙂

This poor gal has a bum leg.  She would kind of hop/fly to get around.  I wouldn’t mind if her and a friend wanted to call our pond home for the winter.

Just not this many friends.  Today there were only 30, but we have had as many as 100 and it is incredible what they can do to the ground.  They dig holes and pull the grass out by the roots!

They are such beautiful birds and I really enjoy watching them, but not when they are eating the grass that I have been very conservative with.

So, I will keep asking them to move along and hopefully they will spread the word that our pastures are for sheep only!

Now that’s better!