An amazing and absolutely precious video to share today:
Note the devotion and attentiveness of the parent geese as they encourage the tiny goslings (especially the last little one) to make that huge leap up the step!
Canada geese are truly such incredible and exceptional animals. -- And yet so persecuted for the very qualities for which they should be admired and emulated.
Yesterday, in an email, a colleague wrote:
"There are things in life you come to trust, to depend on, like the setting sun and the Canada geese that made the sky dark when they would head home. It has really broken my heart, although most people would probably think me nuts for saying so."
The writer was referring to her distress in witnessing the geese from her local NYC park disappear over the past few months. The suspicion is a USDA roundup and cull, but the site was not listed for such in the latest 2011 "Goose Removal Report."
Of course, we who love geese are now conditioned to being suspicious of either harassment or massacres every time we note disappearances of the birds. These harsh and senseless "removal" techniques have become the new norms and realities both, in New York City and around the country.
Instead of concentrating on the two-legged, human menaces that truly need to be "removed" from civilized society (as written about yesterday) we concentrate on demonizing and "removing" the innocent and pure Canada geese that represent harm to nothing and no one. (On the contrary, the geese represent beauty, peace and stability.)
I too, consider the worst every time the few geese observed in Central Park seemingly vanish over night.
Last night, I could not find the five geese observed for the previous four evenings at Harlem Meer.
At a time I thought the resident geese might stay at least until the lake starts to freeze over, they once again disappear.
The first thought in all of these instances at Central Park is "harassment," even though one realizes it is normal for both, resident and migratory geese to move around this time of year.
But., like the writer of the posted quote, there is always this sense of loss and the un-normal when what one comes to depend on and trust to be around every day, "like the setting sun" isn't there anymore.
Nature however being what it is, especially during times of bird migrations, populations can fluctuate from one day to another in a location.
A few days ago, there were many mallards at Harlem Meer.
Monday night however, it appeared some of the mallards had left and some Northern Shovelers had flown in.
The shovelers clustered around the family of four geese at the Meer and it was kind of funny to note all of the birds, including the geese, dipping their heads in and out of the water and swimming in circles.
I did not see Bandy, the "loner" goose with tarsal bands on both legs on Monday night, but figured being "independent" as he is, he might have been somewhere else on the fairly large, dark lake.
But, last night, I didn't see any of the geese.
The one thing that has truly not fluctuated at all in Central Park over the past three months is the nearly non-existent population of Canada geese.
It is actually seeing any geese at all that has become the new "unique."
Figuring that it can be difficult to see every bird on the water at night, I am planning to go to Central Park during daylight hours today.
The hope is to again find the family of four geese and their tag-along pal -- or any geese at all.
How odd to be saying this at a time of year "thousands" of geese are supposedly migrating through the Atlantic flyway.
New York City is on the Atlantic flyway. And we are constantly being told about the "overpopulation" of Canada geese.
And yet, it will be a banner day if finding any geese at all in Central Park.
What does that really say?
It says:
"There are things in life you come to trust, to depend on, like the setting sun and the Canada geese that made the sky dark when they would head home. It has really broken my heart although most people would probably think me nuts for saying so."
Today, I will seek Canada geese and setting sun on an otherwise day of overcast and rain. -- PCA
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