Monday, June 15, 2009

It Takes A Gaggle . . .

If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a gaggle of geese to raise a gosling.





We've had two female geese sitting on a clutch of eggs for about a month now. Three days ago, this little yellow guy hatched. Two days ago, the gray and yellow one made his appearance along with another one that we think got stepped on and sadly didn't survive.





It's really difficult to get pictures of the little fuzz balls because all of the geese, both males and females, seem to have a vested interest in shielding them from big humans with cameras.





These little guys are traveling all over the large fenced in poultry yard (zipping along like wind-up toys . . . how can their little legs handle all the mileage?) grazing and drinking water right with the big geese. When they move from spot to spot, the adults seem to put them in the center, forming a protective circle around them.






We still have this mama goose sitting on the remaining eggs. When I took this picture, I thought I could hear muffled peeps coming from beneath her. Wishful thinking, or will we get more babies yet?



4 comments:

Chicken Mama said...

Yayyy! I really miss not having new critters this year (aside from my one little chick, Vanilla). Next year I'll DEFINITELY order some. That picture of them at the water dish is too cute!

Chicken Mama said...

P.S. If you ever have an extra, well-behaved gander to get rid of, I'll take him! I think Tallulah would be a great mom.

Mama Pea said...

Chicken Mama - Yesterday morning we found one of them swimming in the water dish. He must have almost fallen in because once he was in, he just couldn't quite make it up the slippery slope out again. Luckily we saw him soon enough (before he exhausted himself) and put a large "stepping stone" in the bottom of the water dish so this it won't happen again if someone decides to go for a swim!

P.S. I think we can arrange for one of our ganders to be adopted by you so Tallulah can have a boyfriend.

RuthieJ said...

Gosh, those little ones are really cute! I hope there are some more coming soon.