Tuesday, June 12, 2017 8 am
Rode my bike across the bridge this morning, so I missed the chicken’s morning serenade in Fair Oaks Village. Canada geese (all 70 of them) are roaming the grounds alongside Jim’s Bridge – now open! A visitor has marked the place by stacking rocks.
When I arrive at the boat launch ramp three mallards are sitting quietly at the far end barely in the water. A crowd of pigeons are standing on the road behind the ramp. They hear me come and with a flutter of feathers, they rise, scatter and fly away.
I ride over to the Fair Oaks Bridge and see no pigeons sitting on the bridge frame. Much later three fly in to sit on one of the concrete bridge pillars. A few walkers stroll by and then a cyclist. Spider webs stretch across the bridge rails. Spiders weave a delicate balance between geometry and random lines stringing pairs of webs together. A lone boater sits on the river with a fishing line in and waiting.
When I arrive at the boat launch ramp, geese wait anxiously for me to throw food. I feed them grapes cut in half and they love it!
So little food remains in the deep waters of the American River. I notice a few Canada geese scrounge for food on a nearby island that was buried underwater during the January and February flooding. Rather than dunking and diving for food in the water, waterfowl come to shore and probe the grasses and shrubs for scraps of a meal.