Walking our dog along the Boise River Greenbelt every morning generates many rewards. One of the greatest has been in meeting new people. This past winter, when Maggie and I dressed in double layers of wool to combat morning temperatures dipping into the ’20s, we ran into a woman feeding geese and ducks along the riverbank. Some consider the Canada goose a nuisance. I actually love to hear them as they fly low overhead, their wings buzzing as they generate air turbulence.
Colleen Merrill of Garden City is a Canada goose lover too, but she takes it to the extreme. On cold days, Merrill has been coming down to the same spot along the river, “just to wake up and look at my geese and ducks,” for over 10 years. She calls them her “babies.” The birds recognize her and her blue buckets and gather at the bank at Strawberry Glenn as soon as she arrives.
These are the slice-of-life newspaper features that photographers love to stumble upon. I made it a point to catch up with Merrill a second time, this time with recorder and camera in hand. Her hands and coat covered in yellow corn dust, she estimates she has spent thousands of dollars over the years feeding the birds. Friends have helped foot the bill. She has named some of the geese over the years and laments that, as the city around her gets bigger, the widgeon and wood duck populations have gotten smaller.
She accepts the fact that some call her a crazy bird lady. “I know there’s a lot of geese, but you know they have to have a place to live too. That’s my thoughts. Nature is so important to us,” Merrill says.
Her two buckets now empty, the morning routine is over in a matter of minutes. The birds fly off and Merrill heads back up to her car. “I don’t think I have a better feeling than coming down and having them come up to me… I can’t think of a better way to start my day.”
