Sunday's Sequel Regarding Canadian Geese (The bird type featured in Friday's post.)

CANADIAN GEESE ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME 2

The photograph atop this entry features a prominent (and feisty) member of the Canadian Geese family. He/she is spending time in the lake within Central Park while a lone female Mallard duck (at the left) observes (with amusement) the silly goose.

Monday's Musings Father's Day 2020

Yesterday was Father's Day and the photographs atop this entry are ones from various moments of childhood and they feature me with my dad on various occasions.

He moved out of our house the year the latter picture (where I have a cast on a broken wrist) was taken; so Father's Day can be such a bittersweet holiday for me.

Sometimes bitter because he left when I was so young and I subsequently spent most of my life trying to garner his attention and approval to very little avail.

Moreover, he passed away in 1995 and that adds to my sadness on Father's Day.

But Father's Day can also be sweet because no matter what, a father is still a father, and mine had a quick wit, which is a trait I have when I don't take myself so seriously.

Parents Day is for the birds!

IMAGE CREDIT

This is the fourth Sunday for the month of July 2019 which means it is Parents Day. A number of web-sources (including National Day AKA ND) ) concur, "National Parents’ Day honors all parents on the fourth Sunday in July. No matter where our parents may be, this day serves to celebrate their important role in our lives. 

ND (and other web-pages) also claim "President Bill Clinton established National Parents’ Day in 1994 when he signed Congressional Resolution (36 U.S.C. § 135) into law. The recognized the '…uplifting, and supporting the role of parents in the rearing of children.' Republican Senator Trent Lott introduced the bill. "

I am honoring the holiday by posting a copy (atop this entry) of a Peanuts Comic Strip which was published long before (8-1-1978) Clinton created a holiday for parents. The strip paints a picture of how a relationship between a parent and child can be.

But Parents Day is also for the birds, for when it comes to the avian community, both parents play a significant role in rearing their young.

Tuesday's Truths WK 79: It's N'tl Siblings Day!

CARDINALS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

Welcome to my seventy-ninth "segment" of my Tuesday's Truths series. According to Holiday Insights, today is National Siblings Day, and they state: "National Sibling Day is a day to appreciate and cherish your brothers and sisters. Siblings are truly a special blessing that we probably all too often take for granted. They are often our best friends and supporters through life. Another reason to celebrate is that not everyone is lucky enough to have siblings. Their lives are significantly different growing up, and throughout  life."

But I confess that I think this holiday is for the birds, so I'm featuring them in this entry. Peanut, a young cardinal pictured above has three siblings named Frannie, Vincenzo, and Pica-John.

You might recognize Peanut because I have featured her in a prior entries here on Blogger, including one that was published two weeks ago.

Frannie and her brother, Vincenzo can be seen in the next set of images (respectively).

CARDINALS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

CARDINALS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

There are no photos of Pica-John because she hates to have her picture taken and since I feel the same way about having someone take my photo, I never push her to be in a photo.

Saturday (Yesterday) In The Park

"Another day in the park... Everyday is the Fourth of July," are lyric lines from the song "Saturday in the Park," by the rock band, Chicago. I have quoted the song in prior posts here on Blogger when I've published an entry re my spending a Saturday in the Park, which is something I did yesterday.

I went to Central Park to see if turtles were coming out of hibernation on the third day after the official onset of spring in our hemisphere. There were only a couple of turtles swimming (such as the one seen in the image posted above) in Turtle Pond, which means many of them are still hibernating under the water; for usually that pond is oversubscribed with this type of creature.

The Sixth Day of Christmas 2018

IMAGE CREDIT

It's The Sixth Day of Christmas, the day (according to a song) when someones's true love gave to them six geese a laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree. In honor of Christmas's Sixth Day, I've posted an illustration of geese a laying atop this entry.

Re the reference to these birds in the song, a web-page (12 Birds of Christmas) has this to say: "The important element is the "a-laying" part. The Egg represents the birth, creation and new life. And what about the number Six? Because of the shape of the number, which is a continuous, spiraling curve without angle, it too represents the cycle of life. Geese, when they aren't a-laying, are birds of the Air, an element that includes the sky and the heavens."

As you can see, geese a laying are certainly the theme of the illustration that I've included here; as for me, over the many times that I've seen geese (the Canadian variety) in Central Park, they certainly haven't been a laying.

Wednesday's Wisdom is from Geese

CANADIAN GEESE ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

CANADIAN GEESE ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

CANADIAN GEESE ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

The three pictures atop this entry as well as the three that are directly below...

CANADIAN GEESE ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

CANADIAN GEESE ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

CANADIAN GEESE ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

.... are ones I took of a Canadian goose who I happened upon while walking in Central Park a few weeks ago. I was intrigued by how he/she seemed to be engaging with his/her reflection in The Pond and had hoped to find out (via Internet research) if Canadian geese recognize their own reflection.

Father's Day 2018

CANADIAN GEESE AND GOSLINGS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

CANADIAN GEESE AND GOSLINGS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

CANADIAN GEESE AND GOSLINGS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

CANADIAN GEESE AND GOSLINGS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

CANADIAN GEESE AND GOSLINGS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

CANADIAN GEESE AND GOSLINGS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

CANADIAN GEESE AND GOSLINGS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

On Father's Day is good to remember, one cannot (probably) be a good father without a good mother on hand. Canadian Geese realize this, and as parents, they work together...

... A blogger states, "to me they (geese) came to represent the commitment of families – parents who do their best to stay together, who are always there for their children, who help each other and who are predictably where they are supposed to be."

Another web-page points out that "the parents will lead the goslings to the safety of open water within 24 hours of birth. Goslings are able to dive and swim 30-40 feet underwater when they are just 1 day old."

It appears that what this web-page describes what night've been happening when I encountered geese and their goslings in Central Park last summer (as evidenced by the photos I'm featuring atop this entry and some of these are featured in a prior post here on Blogger).

Canadian geese and their goslings are featured in volume two of the Words In Our Beak book series.

FALL 2018 ADDENDUM: 

Hardcover versions of Volume One, Two and Three can be found wherever books are sold.

MY BOOK SERIES

Please click here to go to my blog post that provides details as to where you can get these books. Additionally, I have rendered some images from these books into other formats and they are available via Fine Art America (FAA). Some of my other photographs (Black & White Collection, Kaleidoscopic Images and the famous Mandarin duck who visited NYC) can also be found on my FAA pages.

ADDENDUM SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER 2021:

When the third volume of the hard-cover version of Words In Our Beak was released, I withdrew from promoting my former versions of Words In Our Beak. 

The very first one is an iBook and went into Apple's book store in 2015.

This was followed by an ePub version...

... that is available on Amazon and was also published in 2015.

Subsequently, Words In Our Beak's digital versions were published as a soft-cover book (with slight variations) by MagCloud in 2017.

Its press release can be read by clicking here.  

Now with the release of BIRD TALES....

... I've been advised to make mention of my early versions of volume one of Words In Our Beak, they do vary ever so slightly in content from the hard-cover version of volume one.

As of this addendum, I do not intend to create digital or soft-cover versions of Words In Our Beak Volume Two or Words In Our Beak Volume Three.

A Red-Winged Blackbird is Bird Number Eight! (Monday's Musings)

This past Friday I met my eighth new bird type (who can seen in the photographs posted directly above) in this Year of The Bird! I encountered the little fellow when I was walking in Central Park.

This particular is a member of the Red-Winged Blackbird family and his ID, as well as his gender, was confirmed for me by Robert DeCandido PhD. As you may recall, dear reader, DeCandido is the one who ID-ed a Great Blue Heron whom I came upon in Central Park earlier this year. You might also remember that he a provided bird information (gender) when I met a Bufflehead Duck for the first time. Both bird types can be seen in the photos below (respectively).

In any event, I'm very grateful for DeCandido and I hope I can afford to participate in one of his many bird walks in the near future.

But getting back to my coming upon a Red-Winged Black Bird, my encounter with him was by mere chance, for I had gone to the park and headed to the pond in hopes of seeing an American Coot, a bird type that I initially encountered on March 19th under very bad conditions for taking a photo and I was hoping to get a better picture of this bird.

National Siblings Day 2019

It's National Siblings Day, a holiday which I've referenced here on Blogger an in one of my entries re the event, I pointed out how Holiday Insights defines this occasion. They state, "National Sibling Day is a day to appreciate and cherish your brothers and sisters. Siblings are truly a special blessing that we probably all too often take for granted..."

Friday Follow Up: Miracle on the Hudson

CANADIAN GEESE ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

The photo atop this entry features a pair of Canadian geese walking on a sheet of ice that is covering a lake in Central Park. I was surprised to see this happening as this bird type can often be seen trying to keep their feet warm. A way that they do this is to stand on one foot and tuck the other one under their breast, as evidenced in the following pictures.

Doing this action to keep warm was impossible for Kaitlin, a goose who lost most of her right leg to fishing line while swimming in Central Park's Boat Lake. Apparently this accident occurred a years ago and her mate, a faithful gander, remains at her side as he attempts to protecting her from harm, as seen in the next photograph.

If you'd like to learn more about this avian couple's compelling story, it can be found in my article, The One Legged Goose and Her Faithful Partner, which was published by ilovetheupperwestide.com

Not only are Canadian geese loyal partners, they both take part in the parenting of their goslings as you migh surmise upon seeing the following image.

This image along with others of a Canadian geese family is featured in volume two of my book series, Words In Our Beak (AKA WIOB).

MY BOOK SERIES

In any event, this bird type is on my mind today because this last Friday, January 15th,  (which also happpened to be Martin Luther King's birthday), marked the eleventh anniversary of The Miracle on the Hudson, when Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III had to make the difficult decision to land US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River off Manhattan after both engines were disabled by a bird strike by Canadian geese. All 155 people aboard survived. 

As stated in many articles about the event, including one published in The Guardian, the outcome wasn't so good for the geese.

"take a gander" (Wednesday's Wisdom)

CANADIAN GEESE ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

CANADIAN GEESE ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

The photographs atop this entry feature a Canadian goose, a Canadian gander and their goslings enjoying time together as a family while in Central Park.

These birds are featured in volume two of my book series, Words In Our Beak...

MY BOOK SERIES

... and is evidenced in the picture below of Chris Deatherage's selfie where he is holding a part of the book that includes these avian creatures.

SOME PAGES FROM VOLUME TWO

Chris, as you may know, is the designer of my web-site, patriciayoungquist.com and the editor as well as the formatter of this book series.

My appreciation for them is no secret given the number of blog posts which discuss these birds. In any event, the other day I stumbled upon information related to an idiom ("take a gander') which is associated with the male goose.

Thursdays Thoughts: Challenging the adage "bad things happen in threes" REPRISED

GOSLINGS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 2

Today I am thinking about the gosling triplets (pictured above), which I encountered in Central Park this past June, because I am also one of three (sisters), although we are not triplets.

A photograph of us with our grandfather that was taken when we were very young can be seen in the next picture.

Being one of three, has caused me to challenge the adage,"bad things happen in threes," which I did in a blog post that was published in 2011. This entry deals with the placement of flora (in threes) within my rooftop garden.

In any event, I'm thinking of the "bad things happen in threes," adage on this day of July 13th, as it is my youngest sister's birthday. She is the one in the middle in the aforementioned photo (I'm the one to her left — or seen to her right in this image).

Sunday's Sequel (Re Thin Ice on the Lake ETC)

CANADIAN GEESE ARE FEATURED IN "WIOB" VOL 2

CANADIAN GEESE ARE FEATURED IN "WIOB" VOL 2

In yesterday's blog post I mentioned that there was nothing lame about NYC's ducks, especially those who are Mallards. Within that entry, I stated this was because these ducks didn't let a sign — warning that thin ice was a present danger — stop them from walking on a lake in Central Park.

Today I'm following up on that entry to let you know that Canadian Geese also walk on the lake in spite of the fact that signs are posted that the ice is thin; as evidenced in the images atop this entry.

When I came upon this pair of Canadian geese walking on the lake, I was moved by their apparent companionship for one another. This is not an uncommon trait re this bird type.

As I mentioned in a last Sunday's blog post, these creatures "mate for life, and will begin searching for a mate between 2-3 years of age. If a mate dies, the goose will try to find another mating partner."

For me, the love between these geese is apparent in the images featured above, but another fact is also apparent which I never gave much thought, and that is their tongues! I have now learned some cool facts re the tongues of geese, and will close my post with this link to an article that discusses the tongues of Canadian Geese; as well as the tongues of other avian creatures.

Last Thursday's Walk in The Park

SHOP FOR MY MANDARIN DUCK RELATED ITEMS ON FAA

This past Thursday (12-20), I had an early afternoon appointment with my GP re a recent medical complication; but beforehand, in the late morning I took a walk with MLT in Central Park, to show her the now famous (at least in NYC) Mandarin duck who can be seen in the image above, swimming in The Pond near Fifth Avenue.