March 1, 2014

One Foot Up

Geese in Sepia Tones


Like many birds, a goose often stand on one foot while resting. Some people say this allows them to rest one leg, but others say they do it to conserve body heat.

10 comments:

  1. That's a cute picture. Neat to catch them all doing it at once.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In birds with webbed feet, retia mirabilia in the legs and feet transfer heat from the outgoing (hot) blood in the arteries to the incoming (cold) blood in the veins. The effect of this biological heat exchanger is that the internal temperature of the feet is much closer to the ambient temperature, thus reducing heat loss.

    Owls don't have webbed feet, but I've seen them do this in hot weather. Perhaps when it's hot they just switch legs and reverse the process. LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ms. A., thanks for the explanation. I was not familiar with retia mirabilia. Sounds almost like a girl's name!

    But I am in awe of how geese can stand on the ice for long periods of time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That is a great photo! They look like they are practicing yoga! : )

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's such a great capture! Works so well with Saturday Sepia too. I wonder how much heat they can conserve with one tucked away. Thanks for sharing! See you next week.

    ReplyDelete
  6. BTW, MKClinton comment got me laughing. Now it's all I can see!

    ReplyDelete
  7. That is cute, great shot. Thank you for linking up to Saturday's Critters. Enjoy your day and week ahead!

    ReplyDelete

The View from Squirrel Ridge features thousands of views of the Shenandoah Valley and surrounding area. I post frequently so please visit often.

Your comments are appreciated. If you are responding to a post older than a few days, your comment will be held until we have a chance to approve it. Thanks for your patience!

Sorry, anonymous comments cannot be accepted because of the large number of spam comments that come in that way. Also, links that are ads will be deleted.