Wild Goose Chases -- But, the Geese Always Get Back Up

"On the Move" -- though only days old, these three goslings have been kept on constant move by their parents and shown all the ropes and lessons of being geese in an often hostile world.

Learning fast, the food sources in nature.

At long last, rest!

Central Park Can No Longer Truthfully Claim, "Non-lethal Goose Management."

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Although it is nearly mid June and some geese are already molting (i.e. losing flight feathers), Geese Police is still patrolling and harassing these hapless birds in Central Park.

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Complaints to Central Park Conservancy about what is apparently now, non-stop harassment of both resident and migratory geese (even those who cannot fly) have repeatedly fallen upon deaf ears to this point.

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But, what is particularly disturbing this time of year, is that any geese still flying and chased out of Central Park are potentially to be rounded up and slaughtered elsewhere in two weeks at the hands of USDA "Wildlife (Exterminating) Services."

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Central Park Conservancy can no longer truthfully claim that it practices only "non-lethal" methods of goose control. -- Not as long as it continues to harass geese out of CP in June to be killed some place else.

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These hostile and likely lethal actions are both, bewildering and dismaying -- especially considering that the current resident goose population in Central Park is at its lowest point in many years. -- Less than 30 geese in the entire 839 acre park.

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Management to eradication should not be acceptable wildlife policy in any New York City park.

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Tumbling and Getting Back Up -- The Goslings Learn Quickly, the Lessons of the Geese.

  

If some of us have wondered why the new goose family at the Reservoir is being so unpredictable by moving around constantly, it is likely an adaptation to being harassed every place else and now viewing some humans as potential enemies.

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For sure, "unpredictability," is probably the main reason the three tiny and adorable goslings represent the only eggs to have hatched in CP this spring.  The parent geese, (Hansel and Greta) quite simply, nested later than other nesting pairs and were likely not detected by those whose job it is to destroy goose eggs.

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Whether in fact, these goslings hatched due to particular cleverness and adaptability on the part of the parent geese or because Central Park did not want further negative PR is not really known, but it is suspected that reality is probably a combination of both.

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What is unusual however, is the way this particular family has maintained a lifestyle of total unpredictability and is rarely if ever seen, in the same location twice.

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Though less than a week old, the goslings are already familiar with virtually every inch of mile long Reservoir, as well as its rocks, crannies and food sources.

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So much so, that one dares to speculate that (God forbid) were anything to happen to the parents, the goslings would likely be able to survive (at least for a while) on their own.   

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It seems goose parents waste no time at all in showing their little ones the (often hostile) ways of the world as well as teaching them the lessons of the geese.  

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By the time I usually arrive in the early evening and finally find the family after walking around the entire Reservoir, the goslings (who are about the size of a human hand) appear quite exhausted and spent.

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That is apparently because the parents have kept them on vigorous and constant move for the entire day.

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The baby geese were only days old before knowing how to swim a mile long watercourse, survive rain storms, find food and navigate rocky inclines, wedges and small cliffs.  

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They also learned in the very first days of life how to tumble down rocky ridges and quickly get back up. 

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And perhaps it is that which is the most important lesson of all for the geese -- falling down and getting back up.

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Resiliency and adaptability being among the most outstanding qualities of Canada geese (along with devotion to mates and young and cooperation with kind).

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But, ultimately it is their courage and tenacity that are the most admirable qualities as quite simply, Canada geese never give up. 

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"We may tumble and we may get knocked down, but we always get back up.  Where there is will, there is way." 

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And so, though the harassments, egg destructions and slaughters still continue (much to personal dismay),  I still maintain faith that the forever resilient and brave geese will ultimately find way and prevail.  -- PCA

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