The water in the Wetlands, after several days of temps above freezing, has thawed a bit. A section of the pond on the far side of the Wetlands is open. Our two visiting geese, who have been absent since the beginning of last week due to the complete freeze up of the Wetlands at the time, are back. They must have flown over, spotted the open water and dropped in.

Snowing as it is this morning (unexpectedly snowing), a photo opportunity presented itself.

I wonder, had these geese flown over the Wetlands each day last week when the water was frozen and continued on elsewhere when seeing that there was no open water? These geese are loyal to this location. Although absent for most of the rest of the year, they drop in every February. I suspect they did fly over each day the pond was frozen just to see if there was indeed open water.

Where did they go if the water was frozen here? That’s difficult to say, most other small ponds would have been frozen last week. But, I suggest the Williams Water Treatment Plant on Hillandale Road, here in Durham. Besides the fountains in the pond at the plant, there are usually gulls and geese on the water there to help keep the water open.