Found: Old, frozen, Canada Goose eggs

On our morning dog walk today, we passed by a nesting platform at the Rio Grande State Wildlife Area. Likely designed for Canada geese (maybe other birds also), the flat nesting platform is attached to a roughly 6'-high post, and the platform itself is surrounded by a fence-like barricade - maybe to keep the eggs & mother from rolling or falling off to the ground?

As we walked by the platform, Bruce noticed that there were three lone goose eggs sitting on the otherwise-empty platform. Since I'd never had the opportunity to hold a goose egg, I instructed him to gather all three of the eggs so I could pocket them for the walk home, to examine later. We surmised that something had happened to the mother goose during the spring '09 nesting period, thus leaving her eggs bare & unprotected. What was surprising is that the eggs were still completely intact - no cracks or anything. Why had no opportunistic predator come for this protein-filled treasure?

(The photo above shows a brown chicken egg--for scale--along with the three goose eggs.)

Once I returned home, I lightly rapped one of the eggs with a stick of wood, and it cracked open with a sound like gunshot! Since the contents were frozen, the shell was under some pressure. Sadly, in the one egg that I opened, evidence of an interrupted incubation was found by the presence of an incompletely-formed gosling.

These unfortunate eggs and their contents will become organic matter in one of my several compost bins, so their death won't be a total waste.

Quiet Christmas Eve

The weather is quiet - no new snow, blue sky, sunshine. My temperament is more receptive to a Christmas with gray skies, swirling snowflakes, and cold temperatures. Therefore, we will spend part of Christmas skiing into and staying at a backcountry yurt, where there will likely be swirling snowflakes and cold temperatures, though possibly no gray skies.
The image above is one of a yurt that we stayed a couple of winters ago with several friends. The weather evident in that photo is what I relish!

Flicker at the birdfeeder

Last weekend a pair of flickers appeared in the backyard - one female and one male. They even attempted to perch on the finch feeder perches, and looked pretty funny while doing so.
Most of the yard is still snow-covered but with temperatures some days in the mid-30s, it won't be for long.
Nights have been in single digits, both above and below 0.
Snow up in the mountains is piling up quickly; we've had a few days of high-quality skiing and snowshoeing already so early in the season.

SNOW & COLD

Yep, it's that time of year! A supposed blizzard (really! Even the National Weather Service is calling it that) is hitting the San Juan Mountains west of us, and the San Luis Valley is supposed to get about 3-4" of snow by end of tomorrow or so. Wolf Creek is due to get about 50" of snow out of this storm! Hooray for skiing!
All of my water barrels are now empty for the season, bird feeders are full for now, and the birdies have water kept thawed by the new water heater.
We went jogging at the Rio Grande State Wildlife Area yesterday, and saw a lone great blue heron. I bet we'll keep seeing it throughout the winter, which I marvel at. What does it find to eat? All the sandhill cranes appear to be absent now; the very cold temperatures we had this past week (low was -10F) probably drove them away to the Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico.
I've already received two 2010 garden supply/seed catalogs! Even I think that's a bit early.....