A mystery guest

August 14 2011 Sunday

7 am: 

It’s a fairly warm morning; Sunday; nobody around but there is a loud cheeping noise: cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep ..on and on. I can’t tell where it’s coming from or what bird it is. 

It’s still; no wind, so I decide to spray the grass with selective weedkiller, a job I’ve been postponing for ages. I’ve just finished when there it is, daffodil yellow and as big as a thrush – it’s obviously a gosling, but it’s running over the bit I’ve just sprayed so I shoo it into the pond to wash its feet. I slowly approach it making gosling noises and it straightway stops its distress call and starts doing comfort things – displacement feeding, drinking, quiet cheeping.  It then paddles around the pond for a while, quite happy. Why isn’t it calling for its mother?

How on earth did it get here? There are no geese that we know of anywhere near. It has a small injury on its neck. Could a goshawk have picked it up and dropped it? Surely its injuries would be much worse if so.

It’s not very afraid of people but is clearly not imprinted on a human being or it would come running to me.

Eventually we ring the only person we know around here with geese – Mair at Glangwenlais, about a mile away. No it’s not one of hers. Then we ask Lilly who works at the vets. She suggests taking it up to her sister Kari, who has some goslings that have been incubated.  We manage to catch it and Thelma takes it up to Alwyn and Kari’s place where it immediately settles with the other goslings.

Of course, it was incubated, so the only companions it has known are other goslings. I now hear from Jack who works on the farm next door that the Copleys have some incubated goslings.  They are much closer, but it’s a bit late to contact them now!

It reminded us so strongly of the pet (imprinted) gosling we had 10 years ago – Gracie. It was tempting for a moment to think that we could keep it, but it would obviously not settle on its own, so we hope you enjoy life up at Kari’s, little one.