TheBanyanTree: Looking Out My Back Door

[NancyIee at aol.com]

I,too, read and related to the stories of Fred and Ethel.  I raised a small 
flock of Rouen ducks on the creek that ran through our pasture. Not 
beautiful, but distinctive, the two pairs found nesting along the creek's 
ruches and, every summer, raised a handful of ducklings, fiercely defending 
their families against cats, raccoons, and curious humans.  They could not, 
however, defend against the Fall "hunters" men who invade posted land and 
shoot at anything that moves. Thus perished the Rouens, while the "hunters"  
(mature men from the city who paid good money for their guns and licenses, 
they said, did not know the different between wild ducks and Rouens) but they 
did not get away unscathed, (but, that's another story)

I also hosted a growing family of Canada Geese, who started out as one pair 
one summer, brought their young back in summers hence, and ended up a 
friendly and productive flock of about twenty. They took over a portion of 
our lowest fields that were mostly flooded after every rain. There, they 
found good dining among the frogs and wild wheat and rice that grew there. 
They also nibbled on the corn grown in the farm fields nearby.  One Spring, 
shortly after there return, I walked down to take census. Not a goose to be 
seen, though they had honked and gabbled all the day before. I walked the 
creek and the wet field, and I finally found them.

See, Man, in his efforts to produce better and bigger crops, then coated 
their corn seed in pesticides. The geese, sensing good eating soon after the 
seed was sown, entered the cornfield restaurant and proceded to nibble away. 
Nine geese died there. The rest went away. I don't know if they recovered or 
merely lingered and died slowly somewhere else. My neighbors and my own 
husband suffered my wrath, and do to this day. I no longer permit the use of 
pesticides or chemicals on our fields, and woe be to him who dares to test me 
on this. Oh clueless one: buying me a new pair of domesticated Canada Geese 
does not erase the harm done.

Be glad for the gentle lives of Ethel and Fred. They taught us much.

NancyLee