Wild Goose Chase

[Donna P.]

When I was writing my story last week about the coyote decoys, it reminded me of another adventure. A couple months later, we spotted 2 geese on the pond. We rounded up our two dogs to try to shoo them off. Mayzie and Bayley are great at flushing the geese off the ground, but when the geese swim into the middle of the pond, the dogs are useless. Mayzie, the Bearded Collie, gets waterlogged with all her long hair, and Baylie, the goldendoodle, who should love the water, was still a puppy, and hadn't yet discovered the joy of swimming. Still hasn't, for that matter. She loves to wade, but has never been deeper than her elbows.

The dogs gleefully dashed to the pond and after a great flurry of wings, the two geese settled down on the water. I’m sure I distinctly heard them say, “Nyah, Nyah, Nyah, Nyah, Nyah.”

Road Warrior and I started hurling rocks into the water with the objective of creaming them making a big splash near the geese to frighten them off. My underhanded girly lob is not accurate or strong enough to land a rock more than about 30 feet from the shore, so the geese were quite at ease and amused, I am sure. Finally admitting defeat, we headed back to the house to order a couple of slingshots.

As luck would have it, Saturday, we were rewarded with an opportunity for some target practice. Rounding up our roustabouts, we headed down to the shooting gallery. Mayzie and Bayley once again raced around the bank to where the geese were resting, the male standing next to the prone female.

As soon as the geese were safely settled on the pond, we saw several little yellow balls bob to the surface, pop pop pop. The geese had 5 little goslings.

These must be the pair that I saw nesting on Gooney Creek last week and they were on a walk about with their new little family. We admitted defeat and settled in to enjoy the goslings. Luckily they decided not to move in permanently.

 

Disclaimer: No geese were harmed in the making of this blog. We actually love the geese, we just don’t love having them on our pond. We would never do anything to harm the geese, we just want to aggravate them enough that they don’t want to stay.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Thanks Donna, I got so carried away about my Swans and Parents your story brought to mind, that I forgot to mention how it reminded me of mine. Yours painted a picture before I even reached your lovely photos.

Thanks for sharing the part about the sling shots especially because my nephew brought a sling shot to the river one day and I thought my Mom was going to throw him in - haha. And as in your ending no SWANS were harmed. LOL

[Donna P.]

Oh Lisa, what a beautiful story. Very well written. It made me cry.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

When my Father was alive my parents owned a home on the Detroit river...every year the swans would migrate. The same swans every year came to their little cove behind the house. My mother gave them names, George and Gracie. They became so familiar to my Mom because she would feed them bread they started to look over the sea wall at the house straight into her bathroom window. My mom got such a kick out this and would actually sit in there and wait for the heads to bob up and down looking for her, when at that time she would go out to feed. 

The last year Dad was alive, the pair laid eggs. My Mom would go out to the reeds and peer down to see those eggs each and every day when George went out in search of better things to eat. Gracie would just look back at her, not angry or scared, as if to acknowledge her excitement of the impending family.

Well Mom waited and waited, way beyond the time we all believed the eggs should have hatched. Mom was so sad, she thought the eggs were empty. Dad tried to steer her away and was actually worried about Mom being so sad. Well one morning she looked out into the reeds and there they were, two new Cygnets. What joy....soon the pair and their babies started coming back to look in the window and Mom continued her daily routine, and with her, if he was feeling well enough, so was my Dad.

Sadly Dad passed that summer and the house was sold. Mom had a professional photo done of Gracie and George the year before and it is proudly displayed in her living room now. It brings her such joy to look at it and remember her final Spring and Summer with Dad.

[Donna P.]

Thanks for sharing them with us Andrea. I do enjoy seeing them, and we have discussed getting some ducks or a pair of swans, but then we remember the muck and algae in the pond from the summer of the gooses and we reflect on how peaceful the pond is without birds.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

What cute pictures.  I really like my vicarious arm-chair view that is without goose poo.

[Janice Hammond]

I live in Canada.Have a doodle. Have a pond on our property and I love the geese and goslings.

[Donna P.]

Thanks Gail. We love it here, but it didn't stop us from lusting over the idea of owning property near Myrtle Beach when we were there last week. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we will never be able to afford it.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I understand your not wanting permanent tenants and it sound like you've been successful. The pond is lovely and the geese would be if they weren't such pests.

[Gail and Bailey]

What fun to have baby geese to watch!  Your place is a wonderland!