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.

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!

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!

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.