Where Have All The Geese Gone?

Today's post has a dual purpose. But make no mistake, these two meanings mesh together very well. So let's take a look at the first part of this post with the split personality.I've been invited to play a game by VanillaSeven. I used to do games like this every time, but as Icy BC pointed out in her post of this game, I don't usually play anymore. That's mostly because I'm usually way behind on everything, but with a little bit of laziness thrown in there too. But this time I'll play. It ties in perfectly with another post I had planned.

You can find VanillaSeven's post with this game here. Read it. It's a very good one.

Here are the rules of the game:

1. Go to your photo files, select the 8th photo folder.
2. Select the 8th photo in that folder.
3. Post that photo along with the story behind it.

4. Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same.

Of course, any of you who have known me for awhile know that I almost always cheat at these games by never picking any specific others to continue the game. So I'll do like Poetic Shutterbug did, and invite anyone who wants to play to continue the game.

The photo above is the 8th photo in my 8th folder of photos. It's now a few years old. This is the amphitheater at Heritage Park, a nature park that I've been planning to go back to any day now. This was the day I discovered this amphitheater. It's hidden very well. They have concerts here every week in the summer.

I took this photo while I was standing on a hill that looks down on it. The hill creates a slope where people can sit and see the stage clearly. The last time I stood on this hill the grass was covered, and I really mean covered, with goose crap. Those Canada geese can really mess up a place. They used to gather here in flocks of hundreds. But now they're all gone.

I've mentioned before that the Canada geese that used to flock around here have disappeared. They used to stay here throughout the year. But last fall they all left for the winter. A very small amount have come back, but a hundred times more of them have failed to return. One of the reasons is in the picture above.

Those who run Heritage Park decided that they'd had enough of the destructive pests, the Canada geese. So they put these fake wolves in all of the favorite stomping grounds of the geese. I'd say it's worked very well. There are no geese there anymore. But what about the other places?

I'm not sure why the geese haven't come back. At my usual place, Carpenter Lake, there were 17 geese in the lake before they left. Now there are only 4 that have come back. It's all a huge mystery to me. I want my geese back!

Since I was missing the goofy antics of all the geese, I decided to do something about it. I went on a road trip to Island Lake State Recreation Area. That's where I found this guy swimming around with that duck and another goose. But even in this huge state park there were only two geese!

Where have all the geese gone?

I never found an answer to that question. But I did at least get the geese to entertain me a little bit. So I have a new episode of Rat TV, with the two Canada geese swimming towards me back to shore just so they could entertain me. Geese are such clowns! I love every one of them.
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I've been asked a few questions about my camera in the last few days. I didn't respond before because I've been away a lot, so I'll answer them here. My camera is a Canon Powershot SX20 IS. It's not a DSLR, because I didn't want to have to change lenses. It has both macro and super macro. I've tried them both without zooming, and I'm still having a bit of trouble getting macro shots. I've been practicing with it at home, so I'm beginning to learn. I'll explain everything in detail once I begin to get successful macro shots with it. I'm sure it will be soon.

Nature Center Magazine is evolving quickly, with new guest contributors and new articles, so there will now sometimes be more than one article a day. Today is a new Nature Site Of The Week by Emma. Check it out to see another very good website to visit.