What's going on here?

I didn't intend to bore you with more geese and goslings but then I saw something unexpected that I wanted to share with you.

You may recall the Canada Geese had six goslings last week, well this week I counted seven and one was a lot smaller than the others. Just about the time I noticed this, one of the adult geese started chasing the smallest one and pecking at it.

 

 

The youngster fled into the water and the adult pursued it.

Soon the whole family was chasing it across the pond.

I was worried so I followed the action to the other side of the small pond. Here the little one clucked piteously and approached another pair of geese (without goslings) and was rebuffed once again.

 

 

 

 

The ducks took no notice of the little one.

The family group swam into the middle of the pond and the little fellow swam into the shallow water where the adults without goslings watched and didn't allow it to come ashore again, more wailing. 

 

The adult geese and remaining goslings headed to the water and swam away. 

 The littlest gosling came ashore again and hid on the shoreline. Since I was close the geese (without goslings) did not threaten it.

Was there some kind of call from the rest of the group, if so I wasn't aware of it, but the next thing I saw was the gosling swimming out towards the rest of the family.

 

I was a bit worried, but it was allowed to return, here you can see it in the middle of the picture. A happy ending? I hoped so and I resumed my walk.

Later in the afternoon I headed back to the area where I had first seen the geese and the parents plus all seven of the goslings were there again, even the littlest one.



I have never witnessed anything like this before. There were no other families of goslings at the pond so the little one must have been a late hatchling. I don't know if geese will adopt other goslings, maybe someone in blogland has the answer to that.

It seems that at least in the short term there is a happy ending.

Good news this post received Post of the Week by Hilliary at The Smitten Image



Here is a video made by the National Film Board of Canada called "A day in Pacific Rim National Park". Pacific Rim National Park is on the west coast of Vancouver Island. There is no commentary to this video just beautiful photography and sounds of nature; thanks to my friend Beverly for suggesting this.

 

 

I finished another landscape this week, this one like last week's, is of Jericho Park. I took the photo that inspired this watercolour painting one beautiful morning earlier in the spring, I call it "The best seat in the Park": 



 

That is all for this week, thanks for dropping by, and thank you for all the great comments, I really appreciate them. Happy Whimsy Wednesday, until next week,

 

Gillian