Canada Geese
In 2000, while I was still working as a school social worker, my husband and I owned a 32-acre farm where we spent weekends and summers. It was a beautiful piece of property with two ponds. We inherited a handicapped Canada Goose when we bought the property. Lucky Eddie could not fly because of a damaged wing, but he was the king of the property. He had a pair of Canada Geese friends who lived there with him, and they had young goslings in the spring. I used to sit on the hill above the pond to watch the geese parents training their young. It was fascinating. They had different steps as the goslings were becoming more mature. I even went back to one of my elementary schools and talked about writing a book about how they approached training. It could have been a good book to share with parents who were having a hard time understanding the goal of parenting, which is to produce independent and confident adults. Alas, in those days I was not a photographer, and I don’t have photos of those geese, but I do have recent photos of Canada Geese on the ponds at the golf course where we monitor a 32-box bluebird trail. There are two pairs who have young, one set born sometime earlier than the other. It is fun to see them swimming together, all learning from each other, their parents and aunts and uncles on the pond with them..
Here are some shots I took last week.


The family with an older set of seven goslings. It looks as if one gosling has three heads.


