THE LITERARY SIDE of me wants to write Make Way for Ducklings as the title of this post in reference to Robert McCloskey’s children’s picture book.
But that would prove inaccurate. These water fowl are geese, not ducks. And they were swimming in the choppy waters of the Cannon River several days ago on their way to wherever.
That they paddled a safe distance from me eased any concerns about an attack. I stood along the shoreline, amazed at these determined geese, amazed at the natural instinct of parents to shelter, guide and protect their young. A lot, I thought, like us human parents.
THOUGHTS?
© Copyright 2019 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
It is in all of nature to be protective of our “young” I think. The animal world is pretty amazing and when there is a way to protect they will do it. Our goslings never made it this year due to a beaver but I am hopeful that we will still have some mallards coming along with babies. I do love to watch them grow.
Dratted beaver. But it is the way of the natural world, I suppose.
So adorable. 😊
We have a main road that travels south toward lake Ontario, and my neighbourhood, which is flanked on both sides by industrial buildings with huge, fenced lawns. For some reason, the Canada Geese nest there, so much so that the municipal gov’t added a sign on Kipling Ave to alert of the geese. So a few days ago I’m heading home with my son and there was a family of geese with just hatched, still yellow fluffy gooslings waddling around the road. 5 babies! All the traffic slowed to watch them. They are so adorable. 😉
Don’t you just love those moments when people pause to appreciate something like a family of geese. We need more of that in this world.
One has to be amazed at how well behaved the young ones are. 🙂
Maybe we could all learn something from the parenting skills of these geese.
A few weeks back two of these honkers landed in the reservoir at work. I have not seen Canadian Geese here and had to do a double take. I think they were tired of the cold and decided a Spring layover in FL was best – ha! The bird action lately is something I catch myself watching throughout the day – the mating bird dances/rituals, the nesting, the nurturing, the going about their day, etc. Happy Day – Enjoy 🙂
You must have felt like a moment that you were back in Minnesota.
We lived on a lake before we started traveling and we had a love/hate relationship with the geese. On one hand, they were destructive (their droppings on our patio couldn’t even be dissolved by a high-pressure washer) and mean (they are aggressive little fellows). They liked to lay eggs in the bushes and we’d get excited as they little goslings made their appearance. Like ducks, the little ones would waddle into the lake guided by mama and papa and seemed to know instinctively how to glide across the water. I have to admit, when they were close to adult size and started getting cantankerous, we’d let the dog loose and chase them from our yard borders (she’s intimidating but would never catch or hurt them–that’s why we waited until they were larger to let Lexie claim her territory). They are so graceful, but also so dang mean!
I absolutely agree with you. Randy warned me not to get too close to the parents in my pursuit of photos.