On an Afternoon Walk ~ Alive in the Park

What a treat! Three fuzzy yellow goslings struggled out of the water followed closely by mom and dad. A mischievous wind ruffled the lake, while the radiant sun from the clear blue sky threw diamonds on the water. The trees and bushes tipped in green buds, some on them leafed out in tiny new leaves. The rain of the past few days has made all things come alive in the park and beyond.

“Spring won’t let me stay in this house any longer! 

I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.”

~ Gustav Mahler

In Awe ~ 1

 Maybe just one.

New photos of rain-washed clouds today?

drifting and bringing more rain

when coming night falls quietly 

~ no desire to snap and click. 

New photos of fluffy goslings today?

little gaggles of three or six ~ 

mom and dad watching suspiciously, 

~ no desire to snap and click.

Over days, months and years, 

photos of clouds and goslings 

lose their sense of place and time ~

yet awe and wonder still inflates my soul.

“…we must never lose sight of that gaze with which we look at things.”

~ Lázló Krasznahorkani, Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming

On an Afternoon Walk

Kids these days! Just moseying in a crowd across the road. As if they owned it! At least six blocks and four lanes of traffic was stopped while a lone woman was trying to hurry them across to my side of the street. Once they all straggled up on the sidewalk she went back across the street to prevent another smaller gaggle from following their buds. When I reached them, they were about to turn and go back, so I herded and got hissed at - their chaperone wasn’t thrilled with me. When they were grazing hungrily and moving away from the road I continued my walk. 

Later in the evening, from my kitchen window, I could see traffic slowing and stopping again. I suspect this is a usual feature of Canada geese in Regina- or any other part of the world where geese travel. The patience of yesterday's motorists is to be commended. 

“Every walker is a guard on patrol to protect the ineffable.”

~ Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking

Alterations and Vaccinations

Altering the shape of my day began when I stepped out my door at 7:30 am. Air, barely cool, the sun was already melting the morning. Around the lake, from shade to shade, geese and growing goslings fed and squabbled over food and territory. I walked, talked and laughed with a good friend, discussing fanciful things and wandered through more serious issues. 

With iced coffee in hand, we continued to a long snaking lineup of cars, trucks and SUV’s - a drive-through vaccination site. Air-conditioning and our iced drinks kept us as cool as possible. Second jabs for both of us, it was home for each of us. 

Returning to normal comes at a price. We have all experienced alterations in our lives: distancing, isolation, and masks. Restrictions on travel, on gatherings, jobs lost, school interruptions and so much more. As we confront this virus with restrictions and with vaccines, those of us fortunate to have escaped the virus, can slowly begin to rethread our lives.

“I miss that. I want….I need things to go back to normal.”

~ Melissa Hill, Keep You Safe

A Family Outing

Warm spring sunshine ~ 

perfect for a lunch and a nap by the lake

for young ones that grow so quickly ~ still fluffy yellow but becoming skinny scrawny adolescents with barely visible pinfeathers, still chaperoned by dutiful parents. Under the trees by the lakeside is the perfect setting for these feathered families.

“There are no perfect parents and there are no perfect children, 

but there are plenty of perfect moments along the way.”

~ Dave Willis

On an Afternoon Walk - Survival by the Sidewalk 2

I just had to check on Gertrude. She was really quite perky. Or should I say, protective, yet still no goslings in sight. She is cared for though. A plastic sandwich container with water lay within her reach as well as a generous sprinkling of grains. 

My afternoon walk was a visit to the grocery store for bananas and romaine lettuce. I tore off a piece of lettuce, ripped it in pieces and tried to get it close to her. Pinning me down with her glare, she hissed at me, so I just threw them as close to her as possible. She was definitely not a goose I wanted to challenge.

“Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.”

~ Robert A. Heinlein, Have Space Suit - Will Travel

A Young Gander's Tale

A Young Gander's Tale 

Ivor had given up. 

He was young, strong and quite handsome. When he saw his reflection in the water - and as often as possible - he stretched his beautiful long neck, puffed out his chest, fluffed out his stylishly folded wings and stood tall! He just knew a goose as beautiful as he was handsome would cluck to him in no time at all. He had flown beside several lovely geese on their way to their nesting grounds.

Born on this wide, blue lake, he had only been a fluffy yellow gosling then. He had become strong and handsome. The flight back from the south was long, but he loved every minute flying up in the clouds, through rain or in the sun. He had even been asked to fly close to the head of the V and knew it was because he was soared so expertly. He didn’t veer off course like some of his friends did. He kept to the formation set by the stern old gander. But now he was on the ground watching everyone pair off. Ganders and geese. Old couples and newly mated couples. He had been paying so much attention to his own handsome self that he had missed many a flirtation from the charming geese his own age. Finally, his eye fell on an older goose - not that much older - swimming by herself. She was elegant! Exactly suited to his reflection in still waters. They would have many, many beautiful chicks. All equally handsome and smart!! He swam past the graceful goose slowly, making sure he was noticed. Just a gentle little gander hello ~ wait a minute and swim back the other way. Soon she was calling him to come over. They stretched their necks to each other in a courtship dance. Suddenly, in a crashing splash, a magnificent gander broke up the couple. His wings beat the water, he hissed viciously and chased him away. Poor Ivor! Alone again. Chased away again. After so many unsuccessful attempts to find the perfect mate, he just gave up. There would be no more second, third or fourth chances for him. He might as well just go to shore, stick his head under his wing and go to sleep. 

He had barely settled when he heard another call his name. "Ivor?" He raised his head cautiously, looked all around. No other ganders in sight. "Lucy?" She had been his most frequent flying companion. Nice enough looking in the air, but here on the ground! Wow!

And they lived happily ever after with many, many goslings in tow.

“Sometimes when we least expect it, love gives us a second chance.”

~ Jacqueline Simon Gunn, The Cat Who Ate His Tail

A Gaggle of Goslings

Goslings followed their parents to shore ~ fluffy, yellow and sweet ~ but wandered back to the water.

Soon to be a gaggle of gangly geese ~ honking and spreading their wings.

“My turn shall also come:

I sense the spreading of a wing.”

~ Osip Mandelstam, The Selected Poem

This is the third gaggle ~ or clutch ~ of goslings I've seen in three days in Wascana Park, each shepherded by two parents. Two clutches of four chicks and one of six chicks.

Sight Lines - A Theme for May

Spring draws my eyes……..

I don’t know who dreamed this theme up….

Goslings followed………

Hester and Fredrick………

Tender new……..

 

Lengthening shadows

Ivor had given up……

‘Nosh time!…..’

Earth shattering screams……..

‘Silence is golden…..’

“The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. 

We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

**Post for May 1, 2021

As Promised: The Return of the Goslings

These first two pictures were posted on Facebook by the owner of the pond, with a note: ‘they are back now and grown’.

(Thanks so much, Danny.)

I have been told, obvious from the second picture, that only three of the original eight goslings survived.

The geese in the pictures are all of one size.

But three are running ahead - as children will do.

Two goslings ~ their beaks to the ground, like teenagers, 

heads in the cupboard ~ are foraging for food.

I had envisioned a brutal ending to them all, never thinking that the remaining parent may have taken them 

up over the daisy covered hill 

through heavy trees and

into the heavily reeded growth of the marsh below.

The open pond, while lovely and calm, had become dangerous.

Early morning treks of the geese leaving a scent for any hunting coyote to follow. 

This news of these goslings alive and foraging certainly brought joy to my day, excitement that my thoughts can be uplifted by nature's brilliance.

"The true delight is in the finding 
out rather than the knowing."

~ Isaac Asimov

Lament for the Goslings

“the geese didn’t make it”

Terse words for such gracious birds

Family and friends

community events made my

recent vacation one of 

rejuvenation of mind and spirit

A little family of seven goslings,

guided and guarded by their parents

on a still, small pond

was a large piece of

my vacation healing

I shared with you their 

growth before their losses

growth after their losses

Geese do get a bad rap for

being messy and bossy

This little gaggle of geese

in such a sparkling natural world were neither

Are all the family gone

Did the remaining adult lose it’s life

defending her remaining five goslings

Did coyotes cut the adult off from them

and steal the goslings from her - or him

I have no answers for these questions

Only great gratitude to the small avian family

that brought me such peace and joy

Even the tiniest of nature’s children offer these gifts to us.

Now when I hear

honking geese over head or

rustling wings of low flying geese

see a fuzzy young chick of any species

I will remember those peaceful times

at the glassy green pond 

down the hill from a field of daisies

In the cool sun of early morning

if you look closely you can see them

rising with the mist to take flight

“There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are 

becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature.”

~ Henry David Thoreau

A Final Gosling Report from my Vacation

The Goslings......

I left them last week on Thursday

to wing my way

back to beautiful Victoria 

in the company of other travelers.

My thoughts are still 

at the small pond 

in the center of 

a field of daisies,

woodland and marsh,

a field of green with 

slowly turning windmill

geese

kildeer,

turtles

busier life within and below the terrain.

Seven goslings, 

guided and protected by two attentive parents

became my special mission to watch.

By the last week of my stay, 

this little family was smaller by three:

two goslings gone

one parent gone

My heart denied the awful reports.

Hope really does spring eternal.

Maybe the smaller number was just

a purposeful splitting up of the tiny family for

some kind of lesson in the natural world?

Part of the natural world of the pond, field and marsh are

coyotes hunting at night.

The grand feathered parent must have retaliated with equal violence

unable to save itself and 

two of the little ones.

In early morning, on my second last day, I had to see for myself,

photographs blurred with great streaks of rain

as though monumental tears were being shed for my feathered friends.

It was my last morning,

the grass still soaked with rain,

spiderwebs heavily hung with glittering beads of dew.

I arrived at the pond,

just as the growing, but smaller family,

pushed off from the bank into glassy water.

It was true.

One glorious proud parent remained - was it mother or father - 

Five growing goslings

Still proud

Still beautiful.

Still growing   

The pond and meadow ~

quietly serene.

“Let us permit nature to have her way. She

understands her business better than we do.”

  ~ Michel de Montaigne