Gilbert Run Park

We went to Gilbert Run Park for the fall colors on my birthday, mostly because I was afraid it would be one of the last nice days with leaves left on the trees.  I didn't know Jim invited some friends at the last minute.  Here are photos of the park I took of the trees, hybrid geese, canoes and some lovely birthday flowers from friends in didn't expect.

Reflections

Fall flowers

Hybrid geese

Injured goose

Bridges are for running

Geese in Fog

This was such a simple picture taken when fog enveloped the creek except for a little patch right by the osprey nest, but I wanted to make the pale water look a little bluer, more like the real view.  Photoshop refused to select the right hand goose every time.  It should be easy, but it wasn't.

Storytime: The Lost Gosling

 

On May 2^nd, I noticed that the geese on the osprey's nest hatched their goslings. Daddy Goose was on the lawn, keeping an eye on a little gosling that had somehow fallen out of the nest.  The little bird stumbled around and got caught briefly under the base of the cedar tree by the water.  

Daddy Goose couldn’t find it hidden under the trunk, so he wandered off toward the osprey nest where Mama was still sitting on the other goslings. 

 

The baby wandered around, stumbling a lot.  It swam toward the nest, but Daddy Goose was looking the other way.  

I purposely left the bulkhead in my shot, so you can tell the little gosling was trying to swim back and forth and came back to the yard.  Mom and Dad were still looking around.  

The gosling tried walking along the bulkhead.  

This took quite some time and after a long while, some other birds tried to help.  This surprised me, because I wasn’t sure if the other birds would attack, but they actually seemed to try to let the geese know that they had found the little one.  

They landed quite near the gosling.  The photos are not very good, but you can see that the Great Blue Heron and the black birds were not attacking.  

Daddy Goose got quite close by, but still didn’t see the baby just sitting near the bulkhead.  He just kept looking the wrong way.  

And Mama goose was still sitting on the other young ones.  

Finally Daddy Goose spotted the gosling in the water by the pier where I couldn’t see them, and they swam away from my view.  I don’t know if they stayed on the shore or what happened overnight.

On May 3rd, I saw three adult geese and a family with 6 goslings by the bulkhead.  I don’t know if the little gosling survived or if the family was the same one.  It seemed likely and I can only hope the little gosling survived.  

After swimming around for a bit, the geese abandoned the nest and later I saw a goose pair checking out the osprey nest.  I kind of doubted it was the same pair since there were no little ones.

The End

Winter Birds 2024

A variety of birds hang around the local creek in the Winter when the osprey aren't visiting.  We enjoy watching them and their variety of behaviors.  There has been a huge flock of geese.  I was surprised to see a pair of swans two days ago since I haven't seen any on the creek for several years.

Canada geese

Buffleheads

Trumpeter swan

Solomon's Island Summer Scenes in August 2022

 We visited Solomon's Island looking for birds, boats and beaches.  We found all three and more.  Here are my favorites.

                                    Inaccessible beach viewed from the Solomon's Boardwalk

Tic-Tac-Toe, Three in a row

Solomon's Boat Rental and the Governor Johnson Bridge

Beaches

Annmarie Garden Crepe Myrtle, Leviatano (center) Untitled (right) aluminum by James Rosati

A Tribute to the Oyster Tonger, A Chesapeake Waterman Antonio Tobias Mendez American, b. Denver, Colorado, 1963 1994 Bronze and granite Permanent Collection, Annmarie Garden

Leviatano 2014

Stainless Steel

by Michael Shewmaker

Geese

Calvert Marina