Roy Bercaw reports:
In Saturday's Boston Globe, February 10, 2007, on page B2 there is a picture of Alison Bleyler feeding the geese. No story just a picture.
Bob responds:
For the interest of our visitors, Alison Bleyler is one of the two key people in the Charles River Urban Wilds Initiative, the people feeding the Charles River White Geese and other free animals in need on the Charles River.
I said hello to her and to Bill Naumann, the other leader, just yesterday afternoon at the Goose Meadow. She was crouched at the river's edge. She happily pet one gander on his way to the river. We exchanged our mutual pleasure at how well Andrake and Daffney, the Charles River White Ducks are doing. They were abandoned on Magazine Beach in July. They was so unsophisticated that they did not even know what the Charles River was for. Bill enticed them into the river by backing into it while feeding them. They are now surviving well. As things have frozen in, they have moved close to the goose meadow while only nominally entering on its land. I have seen them hopping on and off the first row of rocks, which Allison says the extent of their entry into the meadow. Their caution allows CRUWI to watch and assist them as necessary.
Today things are thawing, but even yesterday, after many days of bitter cold, the water near the goose meadow had a lot of unfrozen areas. The white geese can be seen in those unfrozen areas in the morning and they tend to vary their behavior during the rest of the day.
This morning, walking along the on ramp to Memorial Drive, a main road parallel to the Charles, I was surprised to see ganders on the railroad tracks just downriver from the goose meadow. The railroad tracks are normally not an area they consider in their habitat EXCEPT during mating season when the ganders gather and prance.
Early spring from their mentality? Not at all impossible.
But 4 to 7 inches of snow are predicted for tomorrow. The Charles River White Geese are very accustomed to it. CRUWI, very certainly, will be watching the Charles River White Ducks. I will keep an eye out as well, but CRUWI is more important.
