In the typical short cycle of winter weather that we’re used to here in Chicago early in the season, the decent dumping of snow we received last week is just about gone thanks to slightly warmer temps and rain.

However, this was the scene outside of my office window earlier in the week. I’d say there were about a dozen Canadian geese outside trying to pick at whatever grass was still accessible while the blowing snow was still coming down steadily. I snapped this with my SX110 since our office frowns on setting up tripods with DSLRs and telephoto lenses on them next to the windows. 🙂

Any Relation?

I’ve seen these birds year after year but never really thought about grabbing a shot of one of them. That is, of course, when there’s a whole group of them crossing the street and stopping traffic.

Anyway, it was because we saw their somewhat-related cousins, the Nene bird, last September at the Maui Photo Festival. Here’s another shot of one of the distinct relatives, you can sort of see the resemblance, no?

I find it intriguing that these birds are found about 2,500 miles apart from each other, and how the Nene bird from Hawaii is considered such a rare bird in the wild (less than 1,000 as of 2004 per Wikipedia).

Leave it to me to find reminders of Maui is the oddest places during cold, Chicago winters.