And then there were three...

Mr. and Mrs. Goose have been stopping by my neighbor's pond for several years now. Actually they fly back and forth between that pond and what I call the "horse pond" and the "spring pond" on my property. They seem very intelligent and are definitely very loud. I first noticed them arrive in March of 2018. I heard them coming in for a landing from far off. They come gliding in like those little water planes with the runners.   Anyway --  Each year they arrive about the same time in early Spring and stay for a week or so before heading off to wherever it is they go for the summer. I have always assumed that they fly across Lake Erie into Canada.  Don't know why -- just a hunch.  But this year they have stayed longer, nested, and so far have one little fluffy puff ball of a gosling wandering about with them.  It is fun to watch them parent this teeny creature who was swimming with them shortly after entering this world. My granddaughter enjoys watching them as much as I do and knows a lot about geese... that they mate for life, etc.  She has named the little fluffy puff ball George ...  because that seems a fitting name to her. I agree.

I confess that I have dragged my entire family into this geese watching adventure and we wonder if there will be more goslings soon or if George will be an only gosling. The geese seem to be a nice little family and we figure they will hang around here for a while -- at least until George is ready to fly away with them. Apparently that can take awhile. Maybe this will become their permanent home and they will stay until they migrate south in the Fall. I see a future of a lot of goose poop on my driveway if this turns out to be the case.  Don't mind that really. 

Anyway -- my granddaughter and I also think that their story would make a fun children's book.  We have been observing them and taking as many "phone photos" as possible.  Among her many other talents, my granddaughter is an excellent photographer.  She has been selling her photographs since she was eleven and is now thirteen.  Anyway -- this experience with a goose, her gander and their gosling, George, could really turn into something nice even if it is only in the "shared experience" department. Time shared ... of the Nana and granddaughter variety ...  precious.

  

A lovely couple...

I guess I missed winter this year.  I only remember about three snows of any significance.  Odd.  I don't trust it.  It's like waiting for the other shoe to drop. "In like a lion, out like a lamb" - only the other way around. Anyone who lives around here gets that.  No one in this corner of snow country trusts a light winter. We have seen snowflakes in June.

Here's the thing.  Mr. and Mrs. Goose have returned to my neighbor's pond... a sure sign of Spring.  I have been watching this lovely couple since 2018. They fly in sometime at the end of February or beginning of March, gently land, and stay about a week before heading north.  I like to think that they are resting up before flying over Lake Erie on their way to their summer home in Canada.  They spend a week here floating around and flying back and forth between what I call my horse pond on the east side of my pasture and the neighbor's pond right next to my driveway on the west side.  They are peaceful, gentle and absolutely beautiful creatures. They are the only two geese I have ever seen land on either pond and then hang around. They just rest, float, and relax. They ignore me. I am not offended by this even though I speak to them every day.

There is, however, a new concern now that there are bald eagles nearby (a nest just down the road), I hold my breath that the geese will have a safe and uneventful trip north.  The bald eagles are majestic and wonderful creatures as well, but not nearly as kind as geese. It is survival of the fittest... sort of like my whole yard, pasture, garden and the current status of my few remaining house plants.  And so it goes....