Here in Grimsby, we live in an old town, at least by Canadian standards. Grimsby was settled about 250 years ago. Once the town was established, it's original name was “The Forty” which, for those of you unfamiliar with the history and geography of the area, may seem odd.
When Europeans moved into the area, travel was by boat on Lake Ontario. Landmarks used by the sailors were the mouths of streams feeding into Lake Ontario. The naming convention they adopted on the south shore was based on the distance in miles from the mouth of the Niagara River. If you look at a map of Ontario you can still find streams/rivers with these distance-based names. In Grimsby, the town name became that of a town in England but the stream that runs through Grimsby into Lake Ontario is still called “The Forty”.
My wife and I, encouraged by our dog, took one of our regular walks down to the mouth of The Forty to see how the snow and ice were melting. Much is gone but with the long, cold, snowy winter, there is still a large amount of snow and ice in that area. And of course there are seagulls, ducks and geese.
The First image is of a confused Canada Goose who seemed to think the block of ice with a stick frozen in it, was in actual fact a rival goose posing a challenge, This made for an amusing few minutes of entertainment for us.
The second image is of a group of seagulls trying to keep warm.
The last three images are interesting because of the goose with the white “cheeks” and orange legs. This appears to be a cross between a Canada Goose and some variety of domestic goose. This goose has been around for some time it seems. According to a gentleman we met there, he has seen it regularly for many years. In fact he has posted some information on the goose at his website http://marvejohn.ca/Nature/awdgoose/ so you may want to look at that if you are curious.
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