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More water to dump on USDA Wildlife (Extermination) Services's declarations that geese and ducks are some kind of enemies and that ducks are somehow threatened or intimidated by the presence of geese in an area. (See blog posting of June 19th.)
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Reported from Prospect Park today is the recent sighting of a young gosling presently being raised by a domestic (flightless) duck, "Lily" and her mallard drake partner:
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More than a month ago, it had been reported that there was a nesting pair of geese at Prospect Park.
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But, it was not known what became of the geese or their eggs.
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In the weeks following the sighting of the nesting goose pair, all 30 geese previously observed at Prospect Park have since vanished with only the one "orphan" gosling being sighted now.
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As has already been reported (via USDA WS document), there has been an aggressive goose harassment and egg addling program conducted at Prospect Park in the wake of the USDA WS goose massacre that occurred in 2010 and took the lives of all 362 geese and goslings living in the park at that time.
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Immediately following the goose gassings of July 8, 2010, a number of community people questioned if USDA had also rounded up and gassed the mallards that were peacefully living with the geese at Prospect Park just prior to the massacre?
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Few mallards were observed at Prospect Park following the goose gassings and so it was only natural that such question would be raised.
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But, there was no evidence to suggest that USDA also captured mallards for gassing and they did not report such in their follow-up documents.
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Rather, it is likely that when seeing their goose friends terrorized and captured, those mallards who could still fly, simply took off from Prospect Park, in some cases, never to return.
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It must have been a horrible and traumatic experience for the ducks and all manner of other water birds at Prospect Park at the time. Small wonder in the weeks that followed, few if any water birds (other than the swans) were observed at Prospect Park. The park and lake were, quite simply, a water graveyard.
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But, fast forward to 2014 and the current situation of a gosling being raised and protected by a domestic duck who cannot fly and her loyal, devoted mallard drake.
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Its likely the parent geese were terrorized and harassed out of Prospect Park in recent weeks along with the 28 other geese observed there in May. Parent geese would never willingly abandon their young.
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How was one egg allowed to hatch at Prospect Park? Did any other goslings hatch?
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These are questions that are obviously not known.
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But, as also reported recently, three goslings hatched at the Reservoir in Central Park despite an otherwise aggressive egg oiling program. Some geese are a bit more clever in either hiding nests and/or nesting earlier or later than normal. Or, perhaps an insufficient amount of oil was doused on the one egg enough to smother the developing embryo.
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In any event, the surviving gosling (who appears about five weeks old) was apparently smart enough to find other water birds to attach with and lucky for him the ducks have accepted and "adopted" the loner gosling.
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The situation, for the moment, is reasonably safe and secure.
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But, for this gosling to survive over the long haul, s/he will eventually have to find way to other geese. A goose, after all, is not a duck.
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But, that possibility is extremely remote especially now during the goose molting season and will be nearly as remote when geese again begin to fly in late July due to the aggressive goose harassment policy at Prospect Park. As noted many times in this blog, assimilation of loner geese into other flocks takes time and "time" for such is simply not allowed either at Prospect Park or Central Park.
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Once again, it is up to aware and caring park pedestrians to try and find long term solution for this now orphaned gosling as the actions of government and park officials, though creating the situations in the first place, are loath to find proper and humane solution.
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Were this a "normal" situation created by some natural tragedy to the parent geese, I would personally advise the people of Prospect Park to let the situation play out until other geese arrived in the park that this gosling could attempt to bond with. Geese, being the peaceful and accepting birds they are, usually do accept loners if given sufficient time regardless of the origins of the newcomers.
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But, nothing about our city parks is "normal" anymore.
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This morning, I walked around Turtle Pond in Central Park and despite there being a bountiful supply of duck weed on the water (a major food source for ducks and geese), there were no geese at all and only three mallards.
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Normally in the summer, Turtle Pond is a major attractant to water birds.
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But, the non-stop goose harassment around all Central Park watercourses this past year (with the lone exception of Jackie Onassis Reservoir) has resulted in all of its lakes and ponds being virtually water-bird empty.
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And yet, there are plenty of mallards at the Reservoir -- along with the 24 geese presently molting there.
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Of all the lies cooked up by USDA WS to justify its goose slaughters, the claim of geese pushing out other birds is the most ludicrous and insulting to anyone who has spent even scant time actually observing the birds.
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Geese and ducks may sometimes "spar" with each other as they spar with members of their own species.
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But, underneath it all, ducks and geese are trustworthy, enduring and mutually cooperating friends who actually look out for each other -- and in some cases, even take on the orphaned young (or "baby sitting" duties) of the other species. (Who can, for example, forget the number of times Cago, the loner Canada goose at Harlem Meer last year, baby sitted for a mama mallard who left her ducklings to chase off other mallards? If that didn't signify trust, I personally don't know what does.)
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Despite all the lengthy documents USDA WS produces to defend and rationalize their goose slaughters, there are only two simple reasons they actually conduct them:
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1-- They can.
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2-- USDA WS gets paid handsomely to capture and kill the geese (and other wildlife).
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The final insult to park goers and nature lovers is that it is our tax dollars paying for the wildlife massacres.
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I don't have a car to personally tail Wildlife Extermination Services tomorrow morning, but will be in my park early in the am just to check on my few precious geese (and two surviving goslings) and will be busy on the phone the rest of morning to city officials and elected politicians.
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God's speed and blessings to those with the guts to expose these people for what they truly are: Hired, wanton killers -- and liars. (Those who commit atrocities will not hesitate to lie about them.)
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And God's speed and protection to these two precious ducks taking on an orphaned gosling in the wake of endless goose harassment in Prospect and other city parks.
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May it be true that, "The meek shall inherit the earth."
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Lord knows we humans have made a debauchery of it. -- PCA
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