Yay I Started My Nature Journal

Hello everyone! I finally started my Nature Journal and am very excited about sharing it with you. Here is my first entry.
I am really enjoying Mrs. Comstock's book I read some of my entry to my Dad and he said " I didn't know that book was so funny. I thought is was just a guide type book."

Entry No. 1

Friday 3/9/07 March 9th

This is my first Nature Journal. March has come in like a lion. There was great sadness today because the birth mom of our maybe brother or sister had a miscarriage. Hopefully March and April will bring life and healing. I heard the geese honking today! I’m so glad they’re coming back for the warmer months. It always reminds me of one of my favorite movies Fly Away Home.

Reading: pg. 130-135 from the Handbook Of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock.

What an interesting passage!

“She says that these birds learn a lesson after a few repetitions, and surely her geese were patterns of obedience. While I was watching them on morning they started for the brook vie the cornfield; She called to them sharply, “No, no, you musn’t go that way!” They stopped and conferred’ she spoke again and they waited, looking at her as if to make up their minds to this exercise of self-sacrifice; but when she spoke again the third time they left the cornfield and took the other path the the brook. She could bring her geese into their house at any time of day by calling them, “Home, home!” As soon as they heard these words, they would start an not stop until the last on was housed. In ancient Greece maidens made pets of geese; and often there was such a devotion between bird and the girl that when the latter died her statue with that of the goose was carved on her burial tablet.” pg. 130

I must remember to find a example of the mentioned Greek tombstones and sketch them into my notebook.

Mrs. Anna Botsford Comstock goes on to talk bout the great intelligence of geese (One of the smartest birds and they are even on of the smartest animals among mammals!). Also they are extremely loyal to their masters! Chinese brown geese have orange bills and blue eyes. Geese stay with their mate until one dies. There is an old myth that says they meet on Valentines Day. “ The gander is very devoted to his goose while e she is sitting; he talks to her in gentle tones and is fierce in her defense.” pg. 132 The way a goose defends his family is actually quite funny he grabs on to enemies with his bill and beasts them with his wings until they give up the attack. “ The mistress of the farm told me that he [gander] had whipped her black and blue when she tried to interfere with the goslings.” pg. 132 Geese show such a lovely example of the christian family! Protective father, loving mother, and a strong family life. Geese eat mostly clover, grass, and water veggies. They are very clean animals who clean and oil their bodies with great care. Mrs.Comstock say that the honking I heard was the call of and elderly leading goose and the answers of the flock. The geese are early this year. This proves the Groundhog was right (he didn’t see his shadow). I wonder if he is friends with the geese?

Wild Geese Patterns Of Migration

North- April & May
South- October to December pg. 133

White markings are supposed to be used as “reflectors” to help the flock to stay together when in flight.

One last quote:

“One morning a neighbor of mine found that during the night a wild gander, injured in some way, had joined his flock. The stranger was treated with much courtesy by its new companions as well as by the farmer’s family and soon seemed perfectly at home. The next spring he mated with on of the domestic gees. In the late summer. my neighbor, mindful of wild geese habits. clipped the wings of the gander so that he would be unable to join andy passing flock of his relatives. As the migrating season approached, the gander became very uneasy; not only was he uneasy and unhappy always but he insisted that his wife share his misery of unrest. He spent his days in earnest remonstrance with her and, lifting himself by his cropped wings to the top of the barnyard fence, He insisted that she keep him company on this, for webbed feet, uneasy resting place. Finally, after many days of tribulation, the two valiantly started south on foot. News was received of their progress for some distance and then they were lost to us. During the winter r our neighbor visited a friend living eighteen mile s to the southward and found in his barnyard the errant pair. They had become tried of migrating by tramping and had joined the farmer’s flock; but were never able the determine the length of time required for the journey.” pg. 134


~Amelia