In mid-December, I saw this bird on the creek close to my home. The owner of the property informed me that he had seen it several weeks prior to my sighting. I had no idea what it was at the time, but have since discovered it's a domestic goose, possibly a Greylag. The area in which it has taken up residence is isolated and surrounded by woods, which could hide predators. The plan is to relocate the goose to a less isolated area where there are geese and mallards. Presently, I feed this bird at least twice daily in order to build trust so I can get close enough to catch it and take it to its new home. My goal is to move it this weekend. I visited the new area last week and have included images of its current residents.
1/24---The goose is still living around the creek. It now spends almost all of its time either in the creek, or on the bank, making it nearly impossible to get close enough to net it and be able to have a sure foothold to pick it up and put it in the box for transportation. At some point, I WILL get that goose to a safer environment.
2/6---Another weekend has come and gone and the goose remains at the creek. Strangely, instead of it getting more comfortable with me, it seems to be a little less at ease. I can't help thinking something, or someone is messing with the goose when I am not around. I am again planning for a weekend capture & relocation.
2/13---I MUST move the goose this coming weekend! The creek has frozen over 2 nights in a row, which means the goose has no defense against predators during the night. Yesterday and this morning I broke the ice in a small section so it can get a bit off shore, (sorry no pictures of that adventure). The temperature is supposed to get above freezing today, so more of the ice will melt. The rest of the week looks pretty good as far as warmer temps are concerned.
2/26---Today's the day. Well, "a" day, I try capturing and relocating the goose. It is going to be dry and sunny. The goose is now spending most of its day closer to the grassy areas, farther away from the creek, which I THINK should make the project less difficult. I can't tell you why I think these two factors affect the process. I just do. I intend to post pictures of this goose at its new home by day's end.
2/27---I guess it just wasn't the right day after all. I stayed at the creek for a little over an hour and the bird did not come closer to me than 5, or 6 ft at any time. Oh well, there's always next weekend.
3/11---The goose is still at the creek because I haven't had a good opportunity to make another capture attempt. Yesterday, it had a couple of Canadian cousins visiting. When I first saw the visitiors, the host(ess)was with them. By the time I returned with the camera, the visitors were wandering around by themselves while the host(ess) was camped out in the creek under the overhanging tree stump. I thought for sure it would have been happy to have company. Makes me rethink my mission to capture and relocate.
3/22---The goose is messing with me. It disappeared for 3 days and then appeared again about 50-60 yds. UPSTREAM from its normal spot. It disappeared again the same day it reappeared, only to show up again the next day in the spot where its been for the past 3 months. I think I will let the goose remain at the creek at least until fall. Its behavior in the past 5 days leads me to believe it is happy where it is.
7/20---Seven months into caring for this goose, and I THINK I have finally discovered what breed she is. Of course, I was not looking for that information. I clicked on a Google link about feeding geese and there was a picture of the Sycamore Hollow goose. She appears to be an American Buff.
11/14---This goose CAN fly! According to the two families who live on the property, she flies high and quite a distance. I have now totally aborted the plan to capture and release her in what I thought would be a safer environment. BTW, she has moved back to her original home base.
The images of her and coyote were captured there.