Dear Glowie,
Where I used to live in Ontario the Canada Geese flew south every winter. They go in great flocks and a song was even written about their calls. The flight of the geese in their great V formations and the sounds of their communication with each other is the sign of autumn there.
Once there was a man named Jack Miner. He built a sanctuary where travelling Canada geese could get plenty of good food and protection.
Now I live out here in the Okanagan Valley. We have problems with Canada Geese because they never go away. They leave "poop" all over the parks. Big round cylinders of squashy greenish stuff. It really spoils a walk in the park or playing in the parks for little children to have all the geese droppings around. Nobody wants to kill the beautiful creatures so various methods have been devised to get them to go and wander around together somewhere else where it doesn't matter. Most of these are based on ways to scare the geese awayfrom an area. I think I read about trained dogs running at them. Once I read that the eggs of geese were being collected, hatched, and the matured birds were let go in other locations not near parks or beaches so that they and their families would return to those places.
There are lots of green mallard ducks around here, too. We are advised not to feed the wild creatures, even ducks, so they don't become dependent on humans for their food. Then if they don't get it some time they could die.
A field full of the large and beautiful Canada Geese is a lovely sight. Everybody loves the mallards and often cars stop to let one or more cross the road safely. They are especially sweet when they have little fluffy ducklings following them. We love to see the little geese swimming with their parents, too.
Around our house we have many quail. Quail have about ten chicks at a time.Many are taken by predators such as raccoons, but lots survive. They lay their eggs in nests under denses bushes such as there are on our land on a hillsidein front of our house. They also love to go into our big Douglas Fir tree planted by us about 35 years ago. I used to be able to hug that little tree, which I love very much, but now that's impossible because it's taller than the house. Those trees grow to 75 feet when they're mature. The Douglas Fir is a fragrant tree with short needles and many fir cones. The squirrel that lives in our woodpile goes into the tree and knocks cones to the ground. He is a beautiful small red squirrel with white markings around his eyes and on his chest. Ben often leaves him nuts near his home. We haven't moved that woodpile as we should have long ago, because the squirrel lives there. Once one lived in an unused chimney near our side door so we were able to open the flue clean-out near the bottom of the chimney where you clean out the soot or check the chimney, and there we could see the squirming little babies. We were afraid the clever racoons with their excellent, able little hands would be able to open the flue clean-out too, so we blocked it off with some heavy things until the squirrels grew up and left.
When we heard scrambling around in that chimney again this year we took measures to deter the animal from nesting there by opening the flue door and leaving it open. Then it wasn't a safe nesting place any more, so the creature went away. That was because there is a chimney opening into the kitchen from when we usedto keep a wood stove there. The opening is known as a "thimble". We have the opening covered over and hang a picture there, but the animal in the chimney wasmaking so much noise right where the thimble was that we decided it might manage to open the thimble and come into the house.
Sometimes raccoons live in attics. Nobody wants that. Well, I should stop writing about the local wild animals now, I think. You may wonder if we have bears nearby. Occasionally there is a bear on our mountain. As long as they stay away from homes we don't worry about it. Bears may go into orchards, of which there are many here, to eat fruit. That's a farmer's problem.
On one side of our family they have been in North America since the 15th century as I said. So there have been many skilled woodsmen and women who knew natural cures in our family, right up through the 20th century. David, and his son Blair especially, are bringing the family tradition into the 21st century. One of our ancestral matriarchs was adopted by a native tribe when she was a young child. A number of our forebears were in battle fighting units in the Indian Departments. That was because they knew the languages and also knew how to fight in the same way Indians fight. That was in wars a few centuries ago in North America, of course.
Friendly greetings, Mary
