Country Chatter

Several weeks ago one lone goose showed up in the pasture behind the house. Every evening we watched it wandering around and grazing with the cows. It seemed to be frantically eating as if it was really hungry.

The cows paid it no mind. This seemed rather strange and baffling as geese travel in flocks or gaggles. We do not have a pond on the farm but often hundreds of geese will land and graze and then fly with loud honks over the tree tops to where ever they go. You never see one lone goose by itself day after day. I took pictures and wondered if it was a Mr. or Mrs. I started thinking of a name; a name that could be a Mr. or Mrs. I considered just “goose” but finally decided on “Sam”. I figured Sam could work for either male or female. I wondered, was it injured and not able to fly, had it lost it’s mate, or was it’s mate nesting near by. It seemed a little unusual for a nesting pair to be on our farm with only a small stream meandering through the woods.

Last week on Monday evening I sat in my golf cart by the field until dark watching to see where Sam went for the night. I watched and watched and then suddenly it was too dark to see him. I drove down closer to where he was seconds before but he had magically vanished, right before my eyes and I could not find him.

The next evening (Tuesday) I went down into the field with my golf cart and eased up as close as possible. I wanted to see if he would fly away or whether he was injured. He was not overly afraid but became restless, alert, head up, watching me intently. When I was about 100 foot from him he flapped his wings, turned on his honker, and flew up and away over the treetops behind the barns honking his pleasure as he sailed. I suddenly realized he was heading straight for a neighbor’s pond. That ruled out option #1. He was not injured.

I called neighbor Mark Johnson and told him the story and wondered if he had a lone or setting goose at his pond. We were so curious to know the story on Sam. Mark did not think so but would be on the lookout. Sam was back the next evening (Wednesday) and following morning (Thursday) and then we didn’t see him anymore.

This afternoon (Sunday) I got a call from Mark. He suddenly has a pair of geese swimming on the pond with three newly hatched, fluffy, yellow goslings. Sam is a daddy goose!!!

With camera in hand we went over to the pond this evening to get the goose family portrait. Now we know the rest of the story!

Another blog post: Mr. and Mrs. Goose (Part 2) Harsh Reality