Geese

Challenge 30 – No22

Animals, Life, Nature, Photography

“Move the Camera”

Looking One Way….


And then the other

Its funny how a couple of steps, or a turn of the body can change the view of what you are capturing.

I was stood by the pontoon of the watersports centre on Salford Quays, when the Canada Geese came up the centenary walkway for their elevenses.

In they came one after the other, heading for a grassy spot by the pontoon where a water bailiff had generously left some bird food across it. They all ate like royalty, and then waddled back down the walkway to the watersports centre, where they hopped in and out of the canal basins

Driftwood

Acrostic, Animals, Poetry, Water

Salford, 3rd February 2018

Detritus floating en-masse down the ship canal

Readily aided by the boats and the water

Is floating aimlessly towards the basin gates

Full stop only happening upon hitting the booms where each stick gangs

Together forming a pretty pattern on the

Waters surface

Overjoyed geese, plunder the booty, piling

One large stick on top of another till a safe place for eggs has been built, whilst

Downstream, a boat with a foriegn name (and crane) is coming to pick up the leftovers

Clouds in the water

Places, Poetry, Water, Weather

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#weather #water #reflections #poetry

Salford, 15th May 2017

You could almost mistake them for the real thing

confused Canada geese try to eat them as an appetiser before lunch

they seem to float gently on the waters edge

easy pickings for our feathered friends

Bubbles arise from deep below

but clever fish they do not show

as anglers sit along canal bank

the hiding oxygenator fish have to thank

but with one move of a beak

illusions are shattered –

disappearing in ripples

across the water

Ten birds 🐦 spotted

Birds, Industrial, Nature, Water, Waterside

Salford, 25th January 2017

in response to the daily prompt

Ten

i never realised my home city was such a magnet for birds, particularly waterfowl

pigeons are normally the first thing I’d spot,

sparrows usually nest in the small fir trees 🌲 In the front garden

today a blackbird said hello, hopping about from tree to tree with  his distinctive yellow beak.  He pecked around the hardened lawn looking for the odd worm 🐛 or caterpillar 🐛 for breakfast,

and at Christmas we were visited by a robin redbreast who hopped in and out of the house 🏡 on the look out for food 🥘

he enjoyed nibbling on the bits of bird seed cake 🎂 left on the windowsill

a family of song thrushes is now occupying the fir tree in the front garden, and I can’t wait for early spring to arrive, as new life hatches in front of its mum and dad high up in the trees 🌲

The colour soon returns in the spring as blue birds and canaries descend on the lawns , grasses and gardens in my hometown.  It’s an ideal time for the birds 🐦 and is great for the flowers 🌺 as they get pollinated as the feathered friends go for the prize of their nectar.

living by a river and a ship 🚢 canal, I see plenty of seabirds around the water, Canada geese are most in abundance, and can be seen on the basin in packs going for the spoils left for the rest of the wildfowl.  Tourists sandwiches can now be denoted as endangered due the curiousity of these brown feathered greedy guts!   But I humour them all the same…as being chased by an irate mother goose is not what I call fun

alongside the geese are a family of swans.   They have grown in number since I first saw them by the quayside.  They’re relatively quiet, but this doesn’t stop the adolescent ones having sibling rivalry on the centenary pathway…common cause of the fights…scraps (by that I mean the bits of food 🥘 left by those sat by the waterside)

finally there are two different sea 🌊 birds 🐦 I see parked on the orange coloured buoys by the basin lock booms.  The first, a heron is practically the veteran of the entire group, as he took up residence just after the waters were cleaned up, and he’s been living on the dock since then.  It’s fun seeing him dive for sprats in the basin.  The newest arrival, a black cormorant landed around the lock gates last summer…and he hasn’t left…I get the sense he likes the waters round my neck of the woods.

Photo Challenge : Path

Home, Life, Museum, Photography

Path

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Salford , 16th January 2017

Picture of the Manchester ship canal’s Centenary Pathway on Salford Quays

Taken on my way home from Imperial War Museum North – on the other side of the water.

It might seem a heck of a hike – but this is the start of my path home from the museum.

bridge

Having crossed over the Millennium Bridge on the Trafford Side, I go over one or two bridges on my way home

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

If I follow the Lowry road this takes me to this Crossing – Detroit Bridge, which goes over the largest part of the water basins – Erie.  Its a long stretch, taking in Mediacity (The New Home of the BBC in the North), Harbour City, and the Anchorage

Old Trafford

Depending on which path I take – I pass Manchester United’s Football Ground.  As you can see – this is an old photo but it shows the short distance from the stadium to home – The stadium is at the top of Trafford Road (which changes into Sir Matt Busby Way) whilst I live half way down the road by the Nearby Health Centre.

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Home is just a short walk up the Garden path after I’ve reached the cul-de-sac.

 

 

 

Afloat

Animals, Birds, Canalside, Fun, Humour, Pleasures, Poetry

After Salford University’s hugging students: More weird world records broken by Brits

Salford 6th January 2017

In response to the daily post prompt Float

A tale of a Rubber Duck Race down the River Irwell in Salford, Lancashire.

There was pandemonium

at the rubber duck factory

as ten thousand streetwise ducks

waddled out of the city

They moved down the irwell

passing the boats

avoiding the locks

and staying afloat

Cows in the cowshed , watched somewhat bemused

and captains of small boats looked somewhat confused

as geese and their brethren all went amuck

following the trail of a little yellow duck

Led by their leaders, of United Red and City blue

passing under bridges and past an audience too

divided in a moment, by a Liverpool ferry

but meeting in middle – and still keeping merry

In the end after journey , down canal they all flocked

meeting at gateway at Mode Wheel Lock

and first one in net, out of water they rised

and their owner received, a very special prize.

On a Mission

Animals, BASIC, Birds, Poetry

Poem that appeared in “Writers Cramp” in 2010, For BASIC

The pigeon is skipping down the lane,
on a Mission.
He’s looking for that bit of fish,
from the open sardine tin,
left by the daytripper
at St Francis’ Basin.

Or the Half Eaten Sandwich,
Left in the bins
By the Designer
at the Outlet by Salford Quays

And passing snow geese can only look on,
as the pigeon hops,
between passing pedestrians,
in their summer regalia.

He doesn’t mind,
He and his friends,
He doesn’t mind
What they drop,
So long as they can have it
for dinner.