Well, the Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) nesting atop the Chemistry Building just had their brood, and yesterday the family—parents are monogamous and mate for life—were unceremoniously dumped into Botany Pond by the Fish and Wildlife people. There are five goslings this year, and the parents are, like last year, the female 88K and the male 92P (see geese spotting certificates below).
The babies are very cute, but I worry about how they’ll affect future ducklings as well as the environment around the pond (geese are notoriously aggressive and also copious poopers). I asked the University to see if they could get them moved to a larger lake nearby which has more food, more space, and other geese to hobnob with.
Mom and brood:
Eating grass:
A cute gosling, wet with the rain:
Well, this morning they were all gone! Since nobody harassed them, including me, I can only guess that the University had them moved. I hope so, because otherwise it’s a long walk to the next big body of water! I am glad they’ve gone so they can Make Way for Ducklings, but hope that they made it safely to another venue.
Here are Anna and my goose-spotting certificates from last year identifying the sexes.
And a video:
I was thinking this might be a bad report, so I was glad that it had a happy ending.
Those wee chicks are irresistible though. 🙂
I’m glad, too.
I do hope that the university took them someplace else. But I wonder just how one gets a pair of geese and their goslings to relocate since geese are so aggressive, especially when there are chicks.
I was told by a person who has caught these that if you know what you’re doing, it’s not that hard to take the adults and put them in a crate. The goslings are much easier, and then follow the adults when they’re released (I’m not sure who gets released first). At any rate, they were either relocated or they walked away on their own. I will find out soon if the University had them removed.
+ 1
The geese are beautiful.
I seem to recall these two geese with goslings disappearing suddenly from Botany pond last year as well.
Yes, they did; after two days as I recall. I don’t know what happened then, either.
A typical pattern for a pair of Canada geese is to have their nest at location near a pond and then move by walking (of course) to another pond where there is abundant short, tender grass and safety. The move is usually on the day after the new goslings appear. They may go on additional walks to various bodies of water and grassy places. I wonder if they have good mental maps learned during aerial surveillance flights. Geese are really more interesting than Mallards, but I do love ducks.
At York University back in the 80’s we had a lot of geese. And yes, they crapped everywhere and yes they got very aggressive during gosling season. I’m quite pleased that they have gone because I would fear a bit for the ducklings otherwise.
We did find at York that, if a goose started behaving aggressively towards you that, if you held out both arms horizontally, they would immediately quiet down. I assumed that was because they would register you as an even bigger goose being just as aggressive.