Walking. It Ain’t Disney on the Sabbath.

Posted on by Live & Learn

5:50 a.m.

Go ahead, lip sync. I’ll wait.  362 consecutive days. Like in a Row. Morning walk @ Cove Island Park.

I can see her from the parking lot.  She’s up.  I rush to grab the camera gear, worried that she’s going to plop down again and I’ll miss the shot.

Yet, Something is off.

A raven approaches the nest with his shrill KRAA! KRAA! KRAA!

The male rushes towards it, hissing. Canadians, normally patient, and ever-courteous, can be pushed only so far.  Nasty black scavenger, steps back, offers a half-a**ed kraa! and takes watch from a distance. I look around for a stone to join in the defense. Lucky for you Ray, I didn’t find one.

Mother Goose, meanwhile continues to peck away at her nest.

There’s no sign of eggs.

No sign of little ones.

I wait.

And watch.

No eggs. No little ones.

She’s pecking, poking, arranging.  And then, she tugs and pulls on what appears to be a fetus, skin color, reddish orange.

I watch for a moment longer. And leave. Can’t watch this.

I walk up to the bridge, the entrance to the park.  Take another look from this vantage point. No eggs. No little ones. Maybe they’ll both be gone by the time I return. And some kind soul will sweep the remains of that hardscrabble nest into Long Island Sound.

I walk around the park, not anxious to return to the funeral, and return 30 minutes later.

She’s still poking at her nest. Odd.

The raven has departed, tired of waiting for a free meal.

Her mate is now sitting on the pier. Must be waiting for her to be done grieving so they can move on.

I cross the bridge. Still no sign of any eggs, or little ones. Ever the optimist DK.

I look away.  Sad, all of it. Heavy.

I get in the car, and turn up the heater. Cold? 53° F?  I can’t bear to keep looking at the scene.

I’m ready to back out of the parking lot, and take one last look. She’s still cleaning her empty nest. What is she doing? Strap on your zoom lens and let’s see what she’s poking at.

I turn off the ignition, and get out of the car.

Camera, super zoom lens affixed, I walk back out to the fence and zoom in on the target…

Photo: DK – Birds @ Daybreak. 6:31 am, May 2, 2021. 53° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT

51 thoughts on “Walking. It Ain’t Disney on the Sabbath.”

  5. Good gawd, David! Did you have to get me so stressed this morning? What a relief to find out that no, egg is still there!

  6. Good gawd, David! Did you have to get me so stressed this morning? What a relief to find out that no, egg is still there!

  7. I am so grateful I don’t often wear mascara anymore, especially when I come and am immersed in your beautiful, poignant and hopeful words and photos.
    Thank you for the tears. The beauty. The hope…

  9. Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:

    Mamma Goose – she’s still there! Protecting her young … “Go ahead, lip sync. I’ll wait. 362 consecutive days. Like in a Row. Morning walk @ Cove Island Park.”

  10. Glad you had the last capture David feeling too tender to even think of a bird death…here the geese seem loud and aggressive as I’ve never seen so many humans in our parks ever … well except for a holiday celebration … even the geese know something up here in Alberta … nice happy ending just what I needed 👌🙏🙈I do like ravens though … have a joyful day ~ smiles hedy ☺️💫

  12. I hate crows and ravens. I’ve seen them fly off with too many baby birds. Crows are scavengers and would just as happily eat a bag of Cheezies at the dump, so why can’t they leave the precious baby birds alone?

      1. I know! That’s how I feel too. I wonder if I would hate crows as much if they were a pretty colour, but I know I would feel the same if I saw them flying off with a baby robin the way they do around here so often.

  13. Man, THAT was a cliffhanger. I actually stepped away from the blog midway through, then stepped back and continued reading. Just didn’t want to hear that the little one had been lost. So glad that all is well and breathlessly await your update…. 🙂

  14. Cliffhanger…Are you considering going back late this afternoon to see if the egg has hatched? /// I remember last year when you didn’t realize what a sitting Canada goose was doing -just sitting you were concerned until some of us let you know she was nesting!!! /// Such a journey 🙂

  17. Vulnerable and exposed but their resilience to survive inspires us all! Great capture 👏👏This is like tuning into ‘DK’s Mother Nature channel’ …watch out David Attenborough ☺️

    1. Me too! I went back this afternoon, and there she was. Sitting on her egg, looking as peaceful and content as ever. Parking lot midday was packed and foot traffic everywhere.

  19. I love birds so much and have had too many very, very sad moments having witnessed nature at its cruelest. I’ve wondered why this mama bird built her nest so out in the open. Are there no places in that area that can be more hidden? One of the worst experiences for me was when a hawk actually flew onto the deck and snapped a hummingbird right off the feeder. And the time when a hawk flew into the redwood tree and took a baby dove from its nest. I had been photographing the babies and was just heartsick when that happened. You would think photographers somehow develop a thicker skin…but it may be the opposite that happens. When you spend so much time photographing something, you learn about and love so much more deeply whatever it is that you’re photographing. I’m glad to hear this story is still happy…but birds have a pretty tough life. It’s a fight for survival, especially for the little ones. Good luck with all of this David, I know, I know, I know what you were feeling.

  21. We live in raptor country here. Not only raptors, but other scavengers like coyotes. And of course there’s humans with all their goddamn barb wire. Which occasionally snares a deer or a young elk, where they are left to die in torturous agony. I won’t go into details.

    Now you have had your fair share, given Abby as well. But I tell you, nature is fair and yet nature seems cruel at times. Yet it is her way. And we humans are part of that cycle as well, though we don’t like to think about it that way when it comes to sudden death or crushing pain. Still, there you are.

    So I don’t know, it is so beautiful here. It is so extraordinary. Still, I am tempted to lobby for another reality in my next life. This one can be so hard to take at times. And the only way to survive these painful viewings seems to be to shut down our tenderness in some way. Seems awfully unfair.

    ❤️🌏🍃🙏

  22. ouff, that made me look away for a loooong moment – but I came back and finished reading – and tks God for that super lens you could add to your camera, or else the agony wouldn’t go away! That reading was like a nature crime story – what with the raven, crows or whatnot. I very much dislike them too, as I can’t stand magpies and large thiefing gulls…. everything living who goes for other lives! Although I’m the first one to always say: But that’s nature’s way of handling things….. contradictions!

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