Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Resident Canadian Geese: The Young Are Here

As a result of an extended rainy period, the stream that I ordinarily cross each day to photograph wildlife is now a raging torrent. This is the same stream crossing featured in the post of April 30th and is a slightly wider shot. The place where the vehicle was stuck is just slightly above the right center of the photograph.


Each spring about this time we usually have a rainy period that raises water levels for an extender time. So far the stream has not actually reached flood stage, but severe thunderstorms are forecast and if torrential downpours occur, the stage is set for significant flooding.


While driving along the same stream in a slightly different location, I spied two Canadian Geese with a flock of young.


The adult birds attempted to escape notice by lowering their heads close to the water and the ground, while the young huddled behind them.


In time, they realized I was no threat and began moving about. These are resident geese. Until about 1990, I never saw a goose on the ground in this area. The only sightings were when they flew overhead during the spring and fall migrations. In the spring of 1991 a pair arrived at our farm and spent the spring there. Fulton County now has a large population of birds, which remain year around, but they do not spend the winter months on our farm, as there is a much better food source in another portion of the county. The birds have returned to the farm each year since at nesting time. There are usually five or six there, but it may reach as high as thirty by late May.



I have seen other flocks of young geese this spring, but this was the best encounter so far. It is always a pleasure to observe and photograph the new arrivals. Soon it will be time for the fawns to be born, which is an exciting time for the wildlife photographer that focuses on whitetail deer.

11 comments:

SaraG said...

Awesome post and photo's!!
I would love to see what you see with your camera!!
Take care and can't wait to see some fawn photo's from you!

DeeMom said...

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

We have had several hatches here of our ducks and geese. The babies are sooooooooo FLUFFY.
Today, as we too have had much rain, I noted on our swollen creek. a pair of Canada Geese, seemingly scouting out a nesting area... Again thwarted my our flock of resident, as in we raised these NON Canada Geese...Bottom line our FLOCK said YET again .... NOT HERE

Also I wanted to tell you
Regrets for not checking blogs out DUE to very IMPORTANT STUFF happening in our lives…

I have not come to many blogs here of recent. Because I/we are soon to be FIRST TIME Grandparents...I am so excited as we approach this weekend and a Baby Shower for our eldest daughter as she and her husband will be having a daughter mid June....

I am still even trying to get through the last of my trip to Egypt and then onto the Holy Land...

Kids first

Great pictures

Leedra said...

They are soooooooooo cute!

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SAPhotographs (Joan) said...

My goodness, that is some amount of rain you have had there Willard!! Love the shots of the babies.

Unknown said...

Beautiful series on Canadian Geese Willard. The 1st image of the chicks is my favorite in this series.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, gosling and duckling time of the year. The chick are always so cute. I love to watch them. Thanks for sharing the moment.

lv2scpbk said...

Those baby ducks are so cute. I got a couple of photos of some at Tallyrand Park the other day. The water looks so muddy now.

The Birdlady said...

The goslings are so cute - and I'm anxious, too, for the fawns!

Shelley said...

Sweet captures of thoses little babies all huddled together! Spring is a wonderful time of year!

Tom said...

Excellent pictures.. if must be great to travel this road each day and see the wild life and watch the changes. I was at my friends workshop.. it is where my older green land rover is kept. On the canal was a family of geese with 6 young... the day after there was four... and when I spoke to Barry yesterday he said all the young had now gone... The reason for this is a family of Mink have made a home in the area.... we have seen them many times of late... even close up in the yard.. these are not native but realtives of Mink that were relesed into the wild over 30 years ago from a fur farm 10-12 miles away. Our native water voles have suffered and are now a rare sight.

lazyclick said...

Beautiful snaps.