Dear Mother Nature, I'd like to report a broken flock of Canadian Geese...
I've passed by this pond on my way to work for the last two years. So far there's always a population of geese and ducks that don't fly south, and I can't imagine how they survive. Yesterday morning it was -8 degrees F, and they were all huddled together in the water with their heads tucked against their bodies, clearly freezing their little tail feathers off. The little bit of water they're in is shallow enough for them to stand up in and somehow never freezes the entire winter. I don't know if they keep it liquid with their own body heat or if there's an underground heat source warming the water, but some mornings there's steam rising from it.
You can see some of them flying at me in the first shot. A group of eight or so hovered in front of me for a few seconds and I thought they were trying to shoo me away from their young or something but then they all landed, obviously accustomed to humans coming to feed them. If I knew they'd be so friendly I'd have brought bread.
Yes, that's snow accumulating on their backs.
Most of them started waddling away once they realized I wasn't going to put out.
It's not very good photography, but I thought it was bizarre enough to be worth sharing. Does anyone know if this is normal? Wooduck?