A Father Goose Tale

We live on a very rural, gravel road with dips and rises, a road cut through a forest and bisecting a stream that leads to one of the two lakes that can be seen from the roadside. The two lowest-lying areas are wet and marshy on either side of the road and have proven to be handy portages for Canada geese families traveling by foot from one lake to another. Why drag the goslings through the woods and underbrush when there is a clear path most of the way?

Yesterday I saw two pair of Canada geese, one pair at each portage site, both pair in the vegetation alongside the road. Well, today on my way to an appointment in town I encountered one pair of geese shepherding eight little goslings down the road. How sweet!


(Click images to enlarge)

When Father Goose began to feel threatened by my car he slowed down while Mother Goose continued walking with the babies, moving them toward the opposite side of the road, the side they would eventually exit on. I crept along, not wishing to alarm the geese yet needing to get into town. Father Goose slowed down even more and spread his beautiful tail feathers as a warning to me.



When I persisted in following him he stopped and bent his neck at me menacingly. His message was clear: Back off! His threat display was a treat to witness, and his valor in protecting his family was heartwarming. I know how aggressive Canada geese are when they have little ones so I kept a healthy distance away when I stepped out of the car for a couple of photos, didn't tarry long outside the car and even rolled my car windows up enough to prevent an attack from that angle.



We made a humorous procession, I'm sure--Mother Goose with six goslings by her side, Father Goose walking much more slowly several yards behind his family and stopping every few seconds to "gooseneck" and make threatening displays, and me in my car, creeping along slower than Father Goose, waiting for the family to reach their destination and get off the road.



Time passed. I needed to get going. What to do? I honked, hoping to speed up the geese a bit. Mother Goose nervously moved their brood to the side of the road, the goslings looked confused and Father Goose grew even more angry and menacing at the intruder on HIS road.



After the mother and babies left the road Father Goose refused to budge from his position in front of my car. For another quarter of a mile he walked ahead of me, crossing back and forth in front of my car, goose-stepping and making menacing displays while I trailed behind him, slightly embarrassed to be caught in such a position yet thrilled to witness, and be part of, this fierce display of bravado. It would have been so easy to have run over the valiant guy; another person may have done so, but not I. No, I let him lead me far away from his family, let him bully me into driving extremely s-l-o-w-l-y, let him fulfill his role of protector and maintain his dignity at the expense of my own.



When we reached the beginning of the downhill slope past our neighbors' driveway, the point at which the field of dreams comes into view, Father Goose finally decided to take wing. Off he flew, circling back to rejoin his family.





Coming home after an afternoon of errands I had forgotten about my encounter with Father Goose, but was quickly reminded when I came upon TWO pair of geese accompanied by their young: six with one set of parents and three with the other.



Once again a Father Goose slowed to force me to slow down and allow all the others to proceed safely. I was in no hurry and didn't mind creeping along at a goose's pace, but was amused at his goose-stepping and occasional goosenecking displays of protectiveness. Long after the other geese left the road at the entrance to the lake he continued to lead me up the road for at least an eighth of a mile before taking wing and allowing me to pass.

Goosenecking


Goose-stepping



Sights and encounters like this remind me of how wonderful it is to live where wildlife still make their home and raise their families. These geese, the mother fox with her three or four kits that we see occasionally near the entrance to their den in the field of dreams, the sandhill cranes that we look so forward to seeing each year in the field of dreams and in other fields as we drive along the back roads, the silly little partridges we see alongside the road, the woodcocks with their funny walk, the deer we see in the fields...all these and more (including the one black bear and two moose I've seen in our area) bring the my husband and I an enormous amount of joy.