Christmas Is Coming And The Geese Are Getting Fat

With apologies for my recent absence, but we have just returned from a trip to the Midlands, visiting relatives before Christmas and I haven't yet got to grips with "blogging on the move" - that should be one of my goals for the new year....

Yesterday, just before our return, we visited Sutton Park in Birmingham.   It is said to be the largest urban park in Europe and is a designated National Nature Reserve. It has wetlands and several lakes, hosting a variety of waterbirds.  

There are 7 lakes/pools and we visited Wyndley Pool where there was a whole row of black headed gulls sitting along the rails (apparently they're not very black-headed in the winter, when they have white heads, but they are still referred to as black headed gulls!).  The gulls were sitting in a very long row, relaxing, enjoying the view and having the occasional conversation with each other.  It was a very mellow scene until Mr Cocopopia did the loudest sneeze ever and scared the living daylights out of them, causing a mass take-off and sudden migration across the lake!

The Canada Geese, however, have no fear and were not going to be put off from going about their business by the sound of a very loud sneeze.

The geese did look very healthy and yes, they do appear to be getting fat.  But that is probably due to a combination of naturally building up their fat layers for the winter and being well-fed by the locals.  Being a vegetarian myself, I don't go along with the idea of fattening up geese for Christmas and, in my opinion, geese are for life and not just for Christmas!

They are very handsome birds and although this bird seemed particularly friendly, I suspect he (or she) was only interested in me because there was a chance I might have brought along some tasty snacks....