Proceeding north on the walkway, toward the cove, just as a light shower is ending, I turn a corner, coming knee to face with a pair of Canada geese, accompanying two goslings, that are intermittently scurrying along the paved path beside the roses and meandering back and forth across it to sample the vegetation. As I slowly walk backward, so as not to crowd the family and frighten the goslings and/or upset the parents, I contemplate how easy it seems to lose a gosling. Are they really down to two remaining goslings, after starting out with five?
Just then, a man (a marine fireman from the fireboat usually stationed beside the pier?) comes up behind me holding his jacket balled up in his arms. He stoops down, opens the jacket, and the third gosling leaps to the ground, scooting toward his parents and siblings. In answer to my question about where he caught the gosling, he tells me he found it on the other side of the rose bushes, running, running in the wrong direction. When I respond positively to his inquiry if I will watch them, he trots off back to work.
As the geese amble back to the cove, I trail after them, keeping an eye on the wandering gosling threesome. One becomes separated from all the others, just as a man turns the corner, suddenly almost finding himself between two agitated adult geese and a straying gosling. The man stops, takes a few steps back, letting the parents, along with the other goslings, get closer to the wanderer, circles the group, and continues on his way, thus avoiding a confrontation.
The five geese browse on the weedy vegetation growing along the fence and wall dividing the river from the walkway, moving casually toward a gap in the barrier that will allow them access to the riprap at the water’s edge. Occasionally, a gosling goes astray, emits a distress call, prompting honks from the male, and then rejoins the family. Eventually they all reach the opening to the river, amble through, and continue feeding on the other side of the fence in a safer (one hopes) environment than the one they left behind, with its closer proximity to vehicles of all sorts, to people, and to dogs at close quarters.
Posted at: 03:45 PM | Add Comment
