I will not allow a host of */<>@#~+=&* 's to interfere with communication between friends. So I'm putting up a mini-post as a comment on Marja-Leena's latest post.
Your picture of Canadian geese and young is lovely. Yes, I'm a sucker for geese! I remember, many years ago, visiting the Wildfowl Sanctuary set up by Peter Scott in Gloucestershire, England. On that particular occasion they had had a vast flock of Hawaiian geese fly in for a stopover at the Slimbridge trust. There were hundreds of them, all making that unforgettable, soft mewing sort of noise.
Well I had with me lots of bread and other assorted bird feed, and they ate it directly from my hands. I do so love direct communication between me and wildlife. Anyway, at some point in the middle of this mass feed, (and I was crouching down on my knees at the time), I felt a gentle tap on my left shoulder, an action accompanied by a gentle "asking for attention" noise. When I looked round there was, waiting at my shoulder, a huge swan. For a few seconds we looked into each others eyes, then I began to feed the guest. That was a moment - a wonderful moment - that I will never forget.
Oh, my goodness!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful moment...reading it gave me goose bumps
:^D
i'm hoping that one of these days i will have my camera ready to capture a photo of the birds at our window: we have feeders very close by the room where we sit to enjoy tea when we have to do so indoors. Sadly, there were a lot of bird strikes as the glass reflected sky for them whenever we pulled back the curtains on those windows. i did not like the idea of decals that supposedly warn the birds off, so i stuck several stems of lithe, leafless stalks i had pruned off shrubs up against the glass, hoping it would change the view enough for their eyes. Much to our delight, the birds no longer crash into the glass and, instead, perch on the twigs--and very often sit looking into the room and appear to be studying us (and the always-indoor-cats)!!
In my next life, i wish to be a bird. A chimney swift, i think. They seem to live their lives on the wing in such a joyous manner.
P.S. Thank you so much for visiting and commenting over in "the garden"!
Tom, what a lovely surprise to see my name in your heading, thank you! Your story of the geese and the swan is amazing and indeed unforgettable. Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteCanada geese are considered a nuisance here because they mess the parks and shores everywhere. Sometimes there is talk of culling them, or allowing some to be killed as food for the homeless. But when you see the line of geese and goslings crossing your path, you do stop in awe and respect.
I think it was William Blake who wrote of that sort of experience - that communication with "Other Bloods" (Bil Gilbert) - when he (Blake) worte that Man domesticated cats so that he "could touch the Wild."
ReplyDeleteIt is a transcendent moment, to be sure. In you case with the swan, transcendent and magical.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful moment with the rest of us.
Zephyr: Bless you! I loved your excited reply.
ReplyDeleteMarla-Leena: I'm so glad you saw this post and responded. It did make me feel angry that a bunch of unmentionables was going to be the initial cause of stopping us commenting on your post. I felt I had to strike a blow for the rest of us on your behalf. I assume you didn't mind.
ReplyDeleteMartha: Well Hullo! Thank you for your comment.
ReplyDeleteWhat an unforgettable moment! Thank you for telling us about it so that we could feel that gentle tap too.
ReplyDeleteBeth: For a few fleeting moments that felt like a life-time, when I looked into the swan's eyes, so very close to mine, I thought, "I should be afraid of this powerful bird." I don't want to anthropomorphise, but just for a moment.....I wondered.
ReplyDeleteWhat a touching happening, Tom.
ReplyDeleteSwans could easily be worshipped.
Ellena: Yes, but maybe not too closely!
ReplyDeleteThere is a robustness in powerful birds. Such a gentle touch inspires.
ReplyDeleteAh, a goose whisperer.
ReplyDeleteI was nipped by a goose at Seaworld when I was perhaps nine. And seriously menaced by one in the Riverway in Boston while carrying home grocery bags in each hand. Geese do not like me, and have never proven so polite in my life.
Rouchswalwe: Yes indeed. What comes across to me in situations like that is not only the frailty of the human form, but also the element of choice that is exercised by the 'other party'. Wild creatures are not 'brutes' in that sense. They simply dance to a different tune.
ReplyDeleteZhoen: That is a pity because great relationships can be enjoyed with 'wild' creatures. There is something about geese however......
ReplyDeleteThere is a hummingbird behaving as I have never seen before. He sits on a particular wire across the street from where I sit at a particular time of day. He is not there other times as far as I know. He sits still but at times leaps into the air only to return from a short distance. One day he lept into the air to basically disappear into the heights and then reappear diving at speed into a nearby tree. Then he returned to the wire. Then he did it again another four times, very similar. There was no apparent reason for this activity and I have not seen him do it again.
ReplyDeleteI have visited with him a month now - he on his high wire and me on a lower perch across the street. I hope he will at some point come down to me and hover in front of my face. He is perhaps three inches tip to tail. She?
Christopher: Absolutely beautiful. Do not those experiences make our hearts hurt with joy? May your hope be realised.
ReplyDeleteAs another of Marja-Leena's friends, thank you for this. Your marvelous story about communing with the swan has made my heart swell with delight.
ReplyDeleteSusan: Welcome to Gwynt. I'm glad you liked this post, and I hope you will return.
ReplyDelete