Gone Goose

The Momma goose is gone. I noticed this morning at 3:30am that there was no alert head and neck keeping tabs on me as I loaded my things into the taxi. I walked over to make sure she wasn't still there, but dead or dying. She was nowhere in sight.




The storm yesterday dropped quite a lot of water, and there was much lightning and thunder, but nothing violent beyond the torrents of rain. Maybe she had finally had enough sitting through the extremes of weather, or the rain yesterday flushed her out to find a sheltering tree somewhere.




The eggs — of which there appear to be only two — are broken and empty, so I wonder if a dog or some other predator came along and scared her off the nest, to abandon the eggs to hungry jaws. I know I'm a big sap, but I hope she's okay. And there's absolutely no way I'll ever know.



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Steadfast

She's still there.

I called the police — as it was after 5:00pm — to see if there was some sort of animal control organization that could come by and take care of her, but the woman with whom I spoke said that, as Canada Geese are a protected species, no one — and she meant NO. ONE. — can approach the nest. She said also that these geese are known to stay on the nest for interminable amounts of time, and that eventually she'll give up and abandon the nest. Or die.

Well, that made me feel whole lots better....



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Goose Island

Since early spring I have seen this goose every morning, just about 50 feet from where I park the taxi at home. Silhouetted against the lighted parking lot of the building across the way, I see her skinny neck and her bulbous head as she keeps a wary eye on me while I prepare for my day.

I feel kind of bad for her; all the other geese I see — at least those that are paired up — already have their gaggles of babies waddling after them. I have only ever seen this one alone. I assume she's sitting on eggs, but I have a feeling they'll never hatch.



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