dispatches from the new world of work

Eastern Flyway Magic

Eastern Shore Morning

Back "home" (Annapolis, where I grew up) for a wedding this past Saturday. Spent the preceding and following nights in Oxford, MD, heart of the "Eastern Shore" (of the Chesapeake). Little sleep due to the deafening sound of Canadian Geese headin' south. The Eastern Shore flyway is one of the most important eastern migratory stops—and the migration is an amazing and moving sight to witness. In a couple of weeks, I think, there will be millions of our feathered friends parking here.

The picture above is "morning in Oxford on the Tred Avon River;" below is an oyster boat, with tongs, berthed at Tilghman Island. (A couple more pics are at Flickr, including one of the rare bits of humor, from an Eastern Shore political poster, surrounding the upcoming election.)

Tom Peters posted this on 10/23/06.

Comments

I live under the Midwestern Flyway and sometimes our temporary neighbors get a little noisy and out of control, too. But, I love it. When I was a child I could count on my fingers the number of flocks we would see each fall or spring, and they weren't very big flocks, either. These days the geese are so prevalent they are starting to create problems in some areas--polluting ponds, hassling people's pets, fouling yards, etc. Flocks hundreds strong are not rare and many are wintering as far north as southern Michigan now. The environmental doomsayers need to do a little MBWA and see how things really have improved over the last 30 years. It's not just the geese, it's also the eagles, hawks, ducks, pheasants, whitetails, fox, and even coyotes and wolves. The two biggest factors are (I think) less farming (a positive result of the failure of the 80 acre farm), and better farming (no DDT and the like).

Posted by Mike at October 28, 2006 7:38 AM