Simcoe County Bird and Nature Board.
POSTS MUST INCLUDE FULL NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS OR THEY WILL BE DELETED FROM THE BOARD. Banners at top of page cannot be blocked but are not part of the page. BOB BOWLES
Goose rescue Posted on May 10, 2018 at 00:23:20 AM by Ray Kopylciw
A while back we had a severe winter storm then freezing rain. A goose family nests each year across from us. I watched as the snow, then freezing rain that buried it up to its upper neck. Looking at this mother goose stuck in ice was a disturbing sight which prompted me and a neighbor to do a rescue mission to break the ice and free her. Getting there it was obvious she was struggling so with a towel put on her head to calm her down we broke and cleared the one inch ice off her to free her.The gander did not attack us at all, just watched. Taking the towel off her she stood up and showed us her six eggs. A few weeks later I noticed a few gosling poking their heads from under mom. She finally got up and walked slowly onto the nearby lawn where I counted six young running behind her with the gander in tow. As she came back towards the nest things started to happen with mother goose getting very agitated at something. I felt something was wrong with the way she was acting and no babies in sight. Off I go again. As I approached I noticed she was walking around a area but no babies in sight. I brought a small garden rake just in case. To my surprise the young sixtuplets had all fallen in a a expose muskrat hole and could not get out. By putting the rake between mother goose and the hole in the ground she managed to put up a winged attack on my rake. As I reached down into the hole I grabbed two, then another two and as I pulled the last two out mom settled down. The strange thing was the gander just stood nearby,five feet away from his mate, he never once attacked me. I've been attacked by ganders several times in my life when just walking and getting too close to a nesting site but this was not a first but second.Almost think papa goose knew what I was up too.....I know you should let mother nature take its coarse but we had to look at these two events and live with it every day and not let it happen. Replies: