The Gosling Five Week One

The geese nest near the corner of the small yard hatched five goslings yesterday at 8:09 am – The Gosling Five. It was like an awakening for all who saw the birth, a guard and a few caring prisoners. The mother goose sat the nest the whole time over 21 days through rain and wind while the father goose stayed afar, fat from heavy eating and dipping the waters. Now he has showed up and is there as the protector of the goslings, but no more than the mother goose. She did all the hard work and is just as vigilant to protect her babies.

My other Gosling Buddy eight weeks and three days old flew off with his parents the day after the Gosling Five arrived. I thought he was too young to fly.

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The goslings are six days old and way more animated than my Gosling Buddy who had no siblings to play or grow with. I don't know how they learn so quickly but they are already displaying most of the grown up goose gestures, even hissing, but they have no sound yet. Still they hiss and bob their dime sized heads. So cool and cuddly, with their heavy egg shaped bottoms sometimes tipping them back.

The Gosling Five are even showing differences in personalities, two more independent and adventurous than the other three who clings more close to their mother's wings. I turned the water facet on and watched the goslings first dip as they warmed up to the water. One gosling, I call her Sitter because she always sit down in the rush of the waters, as it fills the low places in the grasses on its way to the tiny pond. Another gosling, I call him Stay Back, likes to let the family move away a few paces and then jumps up and rushes to catch up with them. I soon saw the mother goose do a new dance I called The Stump. She stood in a low place in the grasses in a puddle and stumped her feet in place as if she was stumping grapes. I had never seen that dance before.