nature, Photography

Wild Geese

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I’ve seen lots of adult Canada geese around, but the goslings are still being minded in more secluded areas while many of the adults forage on their own.

Adult geese on a getaway.

This is a rather unique characteristic of these geese: once their young have hatched, the parents will organise themselves into groups called crèches where a large number of goslings are minded by a few adults while the others go off to eat or sometimes just to sleep or relax. They take turns minding the little ones. And here we humans thought we had child care all figured out!

Goose on gosling guard!

Outside of town at a smaller lake I recently saw a couple of crèches of about 20 goslings each being minded by two adults. They were very busy! 40 goslings and four adults! Wow. At least the goslings seemed to be very laid back. I guess it’s adulthood that brings with it the grumpy aggressiveness that the Canada geese love to display!

I was being given the stink-eye.

There were a number of mallard ducks around, too, but it seems that many of the birds, even the finicky quail, get on well with the ducks.

When I got back to town I saw a number of geese on Okanagan Lake enjoying an adult time of it.

Although Canada geese are often seen as nuisances, they are an extraordinarily successful species. They mate for life, are extremely committed parents who will go to great lengths to protect their young and they certainly know how to share the workload for the betterment of everyone in the group.

Pretty great characteristics.

Happy Wednesday.

48 thoughts on “Wild Geese”

  3. So Canadian geese are the perfect parents in a perfect marriage in a perfect community structure. They just don’t like to clean up their messes.
    I have a fake coyote named Oscar that helps keep them off my little beach so I can get into my kayak with clean feet.

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    1. Hahaha. 😊 They sure don’t! But as Longfellow said, “into every life some rain must fall.” It’s just that the geese don’t know and don’t care. Try to approach one of their young, though, and they will chase you and beat you with their wings! (I saw that happen a few days ago with a young guy of about 16 or so.)

      The coyote is a good idea especially if you need to keep your feet clean! We have a big fake owl (we call him Winston 😊) that lives on our deck to stop the sparrows from nesting around there.

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  4. Crèche groups are forming up here too. The other day, we spotted two adults with 50 goslings. These are definitely over achievers. Yes, humans could learn a lot about community and child care from geese, as long is it did not involve continuously pooping on the sidewalks. 😁 Have a great Wednesday Lynette. Allan

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    1. Thank you very much, Allan. That’s a huge number. I wouldn’t want to take care of that many little ones! Make no wonder they need some down time to sleep but they’re definitely overachievers and have everything in order. But yes, the poop! These aren’t small birds and they leave a lot of undesirables lying around. It’s not even a good fertilizer.

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    1. I’ve seen large numbers of adults taking a well-deserved break. That goose was watching me closely and I think was ready to dish out some aggression if I stepped any closer! Agreed – we all have our good points and faults. Cheers.

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  8. Growing up on a lake in Michigan, the geese were always seen as a nuisance with the constant pooing on the lawn. The dog helped a lot! There are a lot of geese in Las Vegas!

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    1. They definitely leave a lot of poop everywhere and it’s not even decent fertilizer! A commenter above uses a fake coyote to keep them away which apparently works well. One time I actually saw a goose stand up to a dog and start beating it with its wings. The dog – probably about medium-sized – ran away. They can be real bruisers sometimes! Yes, they seem to be everywhere, John, even in Europe now too even though they would be invasive there.

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        1. I think people brought them there as opposed to them flying there. That would be a long way even for them! Standard poodles are pretty big! It’s amazing how those geese won’t back down even in the face of a much larger animal.

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          1. I hadn’t thought of that but why transport/import a goose? What do I know… 😂 Candy was a great girl, I was about ten years young when she died of some kind of spine issue and man did I cry!

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    1. Definitely their poop is a problem in cities but I really admire how well they have adapted to a human dominated environment. When I lived in Alberta I lived seeing those flybys. Cheers.

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    1. They definitely are. They continue to successfully adapt to human encroachment. Seeing them flying in formation is amazing and yes, I wonder what they could be honking about! Maybe complaining about being tired and hungry and wanting to stop? 😉

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