My winter frozen limbs begin to thaw at the sound. The Canadian geese migration, with familiar goose honking overhead, signals that spring is springing in Canada. Months later than many other parts of the world the appearance of the first Canada goose gosling signals winter’s defeat.
Estimates suggest five to seven million of the species of the Canada goose migrate seasonally throughout North America. Apparently the job of counting Canadian geese does not require accuracy. A couple of million geese here or there is of little matter.
The Canada goose loves to travel. Frequently gallivanting in the UK, parts of Europe and even in New Zealand, Canadian geese are clearly on the go. How do they manage that kind of journey? As stowaways on the Queen Mary Cruise ship?
“Excuse me please I am a Canadian goose and as part of the Commonwealth I believe I deserve safe passage.”
Back to our tale of the missing Canada goose gosling. Most years when the Canada goose contingent arrives on the Calgary riverbanks we all play nicely together. The geese share the pathway with runners and cyclists, although leave their droppings like a goose poop obstacle course.
In past years the goose mood changes sharply when the yellow, fluff balls of baby geese appear on the Calgary river bank.
Initial sightings of the Canada goose gosling gang leaves runners and cyclists heart-warmed at the sight. However Mama and Papa Canada goose, with six foot wing spans, become the defenders of all things goose like.
This includes the river, its banks and a ten foot berth on either side of said goose and particularly the fuzzy, yellow goslings. Nothing like a runner, or worse a cyclist, to get the protective geese in a kerfuffled state of alarm.
Honking is replaced by hissing. ‘Lunge for a Kneecap’ is a happy Canada goose game to play. Well happy for the goose anyway. The passers by not so much.
Cyclists and runners attempt to keep their lower limbs free of sharp goose beaks and flapping, goose wings.
Has Canada Goose parenting gone down the river?
This spring the Canadian geese of Calgary appear to be ingesting some grass with relaxation properties. I don’t think they are smoking it but I will double check. Canada is about to legalize marijuana so perhaps the geese are having a head start.
While the yellow Canada goose goslings arrive in massive numbers, the chilled out goose parents seem to care less if passers by come close to their brood. The little goslings wander over as if posing for their photo.
After years of hissing and honking I do my best to keep a respectful distance. You can never be too sure when a kneecap may become a goose target.
In the past days, as the snow melts in the Rocky Mountains west of Calgary, the Bow river begins to rise. Small islands, once nesting sites of the Canada goose families, now lay underwater. Cringing memories of Calgary’s terrible flood come crashing to mind.
The adult geese remain silent with no hissing, honking or knee cap lunging.
Where are your goose babies?
Sadly not a single Canada goose gosling is visible. Where a pair of adult geese once leisurely pecked riverbank grass with 21 youngsters, only water remains.
Am I overly naive thinking the goslings are tucked away safely on higher ground? Or did the Canada geese lose their parenting skills in migration?
I shall view them more favourably now I know they are your harbingers of spring. Over in the UK they’re thought to be rather a nuisance, especially when they colonise pools in city parks. It gets a tad slithery under foot!
They do seem to leave a large amount of droppings don’t they Tish? How much can one goose eat? Yes here it is such a happy signal and I can see that they would be a nuisance when setting up high density living. I gather they stay year round? Amazing how perspective can change how we view the world. Thanks for sharing yours.
Yes, they do stay year round, and eat farmers’ early grass crops 🙁
Oh dear that is not going to make them popular that’s for certain. Tell them they should be polite Canadians!
now that was most interesting, here in Ottawa, and beyond, I usually see them in flight or farmer’s fields.. true they can be a bother in the parks.. you have given a different perspective.. I have had to deal with the hopscotching across a lawn, or beach dotted with their “waste” and they are a bother near airfields etc etc.. so your little story gives me some pause… let’s see.. if I warm to “them”… have a good one dear.. thanks for the read
They can be a nuisance that is for certain. For us after what seems like endless months of snow and ice on the river pathways, the arrival of life and especially those little yellow waddlers seems to weigh heavily over the goose droppings I am scraping off my shoes.
Thanks for letting me know about the geese in Ottawa. I imagine they are very patriotic birds in the capital. 🙂
They more than likely went in the river, but the current is to strong for them to get back to the original area, so more than likely downstream to where they could get out. Or coyotes got them. ?
Yes that current seems very strong Tom for those little birds. Dave and I had watched the parents giving them a little swimming lesson about 10 days ago. At that point they didn’t appear to be very strong paddlers. I hope they are downstream on higher ground but the potential of them having been nature’s lunch is certainly real.
Wow, that snow melt is serious water. Enjoyed the link of the Calgary floods of 2013, and seeing yes, how very serious those rivers can get. As for the goslings, my guess is they moved to a safer venue. Great photos and post, Sue, those little goslings are adorable. And happy spring to you and the new broods~~
Thanks Jet for taking the time to have a look at the flood post. It makes most everyone in Calgary nervous to see the river rising. No flood warnings here yet although some pathways are now underwater.
You being the bird expert I am going with your optimism of moving to higher ground. Happy spring to you and Athena too!
Now this is a concern. I do hope the little fellows are alright. We even see Canadian geese here in Spain. They are quite the travellers.
The Canada geese must be keeping the passport offices busy these days! In Spain? Well if Canadians can move there then why not Canadian geese? 🙂
I’m not a fan of the Canada Goose. I think of them as feathered terrorists dropping their poop-bombs everywhere, disrupting traffic, and generally being an embarrassment to their name *Canada*.
I am noticing a distinct opposite here on the east end of the country. We have geese in huge populations this spring … more than I consider normal. Maybe the Albertan geese decided to check out Toronto this spring. Would you like them back? Please?
It does sound like you have a massive population in the east. Perhaps they show up there first as spring arrives long before us. We had some poor geese show up in a blizzard. Certainly that would be quite the turn off.
Since ours seem to be vanishing you could suggest a migration westward. Don’t tell them we often get snow in late August.
I think it’s going to be one of those weird years. After freezing our butts off for the past couple of months, we are about to be deep fried this coming week. Happy medium please, Mother Nature!!
It’s a test. Or encouraging you to move west. One or the other.
I wonder how long it would take for me to shrug off my Type A Toronto behaviour? 😉
Haha maybe a Calgary Stampede or two? ?
yee-haw!!
I always think Canada geese are pretty and special. I haven’t seen them here, but I heard there has been a downtrend for them to come to Texas. Beautiful photos. Thank you for the information, Sue! 🙂
Thanks Amy. With people telling of the geese in far off destinations perhaps you will see them in Texas!
I prefer to think the goslings were tucked away on higher ground. Great, informative story and photos!
I’ll share your positive thinking on that one. I’m so happy you enjoyed the post. Thank you.
I not only love to see the geese in v formations coming home in spring but I’m sad to hear them honking overhead as they leave in the fall – am I an exception! Been watching the three families out back dwindle though – one pair has just one gosling left and they dote on it; the other has 4 and seem very proud; the third is most interesting and is a single parent duck with 3 little ducklings…the coyotes must have had starters and a main course?
Oh yes the sadness rolls over me as I think about their goodbyes in the fall. We know what comes after than in large white banks!
Although it is the way of nature I’m sorry to hear of your local coyote dining habits. Enjoy watching the remaining family members. They grow so quickly.
We had Canada Geese on the golf course and they made a terrible mess of the greens – it’s not nice when your ball lands in bird poo. The club bought two swans to swim around the lake and now all of the Canada Geese of gone – apparently they cannot co-exist!
Almost choked on my cornflakes reading this Andrew!
Definitely not a great vision of having to clean the ball after landing in the droppings. Talk about hitting it into the rough! I had no idea that swans could make the geese go away. Perhaps some of the other cities that people have written about here need to try that trick.
I asked about the swan thing, apparently they take all of the food before the geese get a chance to feed so they just move on. I don’t know if that is true but they certainly moved away quite soon after the swans arrived!
The swans sound like they aren’t very good at sharing! Learn something new every day.
Much as I love the fluffy goslings I have to admit, that like others, I am not so keen on the terrible, slippery mess the adults leave behind on the edge of ponds etc. Maybe we could encourage them to return ‘home’ for a few months.
Yes they don’t sound like very polite Canadians overstaying their welcome like that and leaving such a mess. 🙂
😀
Great reading Sue! How the heck can a Canadian Goose make it to New Zealand! Wow… As a kid growing up on the lake in Michigan, I know all about those goose bombs in the grass and on the anchored swim platforms. Yuck. Our Standard Poodle did a fine job chasing them off though.
John I am smiling at the vision of your pup giving the geese a run for it. As to how these geese are spreading out all over the world it’s fairly amazing isn’t it?
Good Lord Sue, I had zero idea that these beautiful birds have spread so far and wide and how they have accomplished this? Candy, our Standard Poodle was so very dear to me as a very young man. I still remember crying when she died of a Spinal infection. In life, there is so much we’d rather forget yet so many things that we want to last our Eternity..
Animals can So touch our hearts to the core. I’m sorry for your loss of a most special pet. Candy was obviously a very loved pup.
So dearly loved. I balled my eyeballs out!
Yes, very much! They are large powerful flying machines that apparently can equal our largest flying machines in distances. Candy would run full bore after these birds, only once do I recall seeing her run like hell to get away from a parent protecting those fuzzy babies!
Mother Nature and her animal representatives can be a bit messy in the most inconvenient places! Geese, like all wildlife, lack our verbal communication tools but their demonstrative actions combined with a host of irritating sounds delivers the message. Stuff happens!
Haha well they do seem to get the message across that is for certain Allan. Now if they could just find there goslings!
Love your story, Sue. Geese are a tough issue. I wish there was some way to maybe–I’ve heard of this being done–(1) get their populations, where they are a ‘nuisance,’ under control with birth control and/or (2) some way to make them useful to people without killing them. I know bat guano is used for something, but goose poop? Goose down is pretty useful, I guess, but that means plucking a (presumably dead) bird, and liver pate obviously kills them (I don’t know if Canada geese are used for that, however).
I dunno. It’s a sticky wicket, isn’t it!? Even my university down here in Midland U.S.A, had problems when I was there of the fierce geese, owing to all the little lakes and ponds around and about.
Finally, thanks to you and Dave for sharing all your adventures in Africa. I can’t imagine being brave enough to sit that close to such huge waterfalls as Victoria Falls/Angel’s Pool/Devil’s Pool. Dave & you are courageous indeed. We are preparing for our very first real family vacation next month and I am beyond excited. We’re hoping to see the Grand Canyon. Yay for travel, though I can’t imagine I’ll go on that glass outlook thing they have out there! I would like to see Havasu Falls, I think it’s called, among so many things.
Leigh my apologies for taking so long to reply. How wonderful that you arte headed ot the Grand Canyon. We have been there both rafting and hiking. Although we haven’t done it my research would say the glass walk out is pretty expensive and inconvenient if you only have a short time. Apparently you need to park, pay to take a bus, pay to go on the walk out. Anyway this is just what I have read and have not experienced it myself. There are so many fabulous spots to to explore and the Canyon is one of my favourite destinations of all time. Havasu is incredible to see that’s for sure.Enjoy!
To the geese it seems that in small numbers people love them, in large numbers a huge nuisance. Yes if there droppings had a purpose that would go a long way to helping the situation.
Glad you enjoyed the Africa posts. As to brave at the falls I imagine many other words might be more appropriate. 🙂
Ooh, thanks for the tip about the walkway. Right now, we’re most concerned about the heat. Arizona (as you probably heard) hit records last week, approximately 122 degrees Fahrenheit (not sure what that is in C), so we may have to axe the idea about fossil-hunting unless we literally go at dawn. It was 99 degrees there today; at 8 a.m. Wish us luck! Happy, safe travels to team Sue and Dave also!
I think 122F is getting close to 50C. Yes you may have to make some adjustments to the plans but very early morning starts are a good idea. Best wishes for a good trip and thanks for your kind ones too.
These geese look so cute. I hope the geese find new homes. Their homes going underwater doesn’t sound like a good thing at all. I’m sure they have a back up plan and go through this most years as the season changes. Maybe they have made a new home just nearby beside a creek or river or in the bushes 🙂
You are likely right Mabel. It’s not like these geese live indoors and they must be able to adapt to weather changes. I shall keep an eye open farther down river.
I took a photo of around 30 Canada Geese flying north off of Heceta Head in Oregon the other day. Love seeing them!
It’s so beautiful to see them flying in formation like that. I wonder if they were coming or going?
Heading to Canada!
That they likely are!
They are beautiful! I hope they have migrated elsewhere and no predator has gotten them. We have all the big predators here at Yellowstone so it rather commonplace to see or hear about a baby bison or elk calf being taken down by wolves. Sad but part of the circle of life around here.
Oh wow! Kind of like being in Africa. It is the cycle of life. I did notice the numbers had dwindled after my original sighting so they could have been eaten. Hoping to find them safe and sound though.
Oh dear, I can understand your concern about the little birds no longer being visible anywhere. If my children and their friends are any guide, the goslings are inside playing on their Xbox.
Oh Bun I have missed your hilarious comments. Well since we don’t have an Xbox I’ll have to ask the neighbours if they have seen some fluffy yellow fellows in the game room.
Canadian geese in New Zealand? Wow, that’s a long long way home. Here come sunnier days in your part of the world — well, in mine as well as the rainy season has ended.
Yay for the end of the rain for you Bama. Yes here we are having brilliant weather and I am delighted.
Such a fun post, Sue thanks for giving me a laugh today, I will be keeping an eye out for when they fly over here?
I’m delighted you had a chuckle Gilda. Keep a look out for our little ones.
They also come to us in the Netherlands, and stay longer, until they have a lot of kitchens. The problems only with the farmers, they did not like them if too much 🙂 Thanks for sharing Sue, have a nice weekend!
Thanks for letting me know that they are in the Netherlands too. My goodness they really do get around!
You’re welcome Sue <3
I’m glad summer is making its presence felt. Hope the goslings are ok! We’re just getting the first really freezing days of winter here.
Stay warm my friend. Looking at Pauly’s outfit for running on Instagram it was looking pretty chilly.
Sue, we have lots Canadian geese in our area as well. But I must say, given how and where they choose to nest, sometimes makes me wonder how they maintain their numbers. I got hissed and honked at just the other day by a Mom nesting on the edge of a warehouse parking lot. The funny thing was, there was a huge open field by the parking lot, and lots of acreage for, at least to my eye, much better and safer nesting sites. But, as to the arrival of spring, we have a pair that honk their way over our house every morning, and it always brings a smile to my face. 🙂 ~James
What in the world is that pair of geese thinking calling a parking lot home? At Dave’s office downtown a pair of geese nested on a second floor outcrop. It happened to be right beside an indoor walkway connecting blocks of buildings so people could see the nest through the windows. It seems once the goslings hatched wildlife refuge assistance was dispatched and the family was moved. Really one has to wonder about nest selection.
Glad to hear the honking gives you a smile too. Here’s hoping the missing goslings are honking downstream.
Wonder if they fly over the QLD coast on their way to New Zealand? I’ll be keeping an eye out for sure. Pretty impressive that they can fly all that way. Cool and cute they are!
I do wonder what their migration pattern might be Anna. Keep your eyes open for my missing goslings.
I loved the humor in this post, Sue! Fortunately I haven’t yet had a bad experience with Canadian geese to consider them a nuisance. On the rare occasion that I did see them while living in England, they were rather sweet reminders of Canada and my family members in Toronto and Montreal. One country they haven’t reached is Indonesia – I don’t think they would adapt well to the tropical heat and humidity!
I am smiling knowing they remind you of Canada James. Also that you haven’t had the experience of an angry goose attack. I imagine the geese suited for Canada would not do so well in your weather of Indonesia. I am visualizing geese with sweatbands. 🙂
Those are mighty cute goslings…knee pecking aside! I would miss those if one year they failed to appear along with Spring. Is this just a local phenomenon or is there a national goosling disappearing act reported by other localities?
Well written enjoyable post…love the humor in your stpry telling.
Peta
Peta you are so kind and I’m always so happy to receive your feedback. No other gosling missing reports as far as I know. I’m hopeful they are just downstream and hanging out with their cousins.
There is something magical when you hear & watch geese flying over head. The problem seems to be the mess they leave once they hit the ground? Interesting that your parents are so chill, our geese to the east take no mercy when you near their babies! Perhaps we need to plant some random marijuana plants!
Lynn it seems very unusual this year with this laid back bunch. I want to give them all a talking to. “Now if you had been watching your kids we wouldn’t be missing goslings would we?”
Great to see you today. What an absolute delight to connect again.
So great to see you as well Sue! We are still licking our lips over that scrumptious lunch?
That was delicious. I gave them some love on Twitter( that was why I took the photo). Let’s keep in touch and sending best wishes for you and your family!
Aw, I hope they’re okay! And I hope the river behaves itself this year – no need for a repeat performance of the flood. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you on both counts.
Thanks Diane. The river seems to have stabilized and isn’t rising. As to the goslings well their fate I may never know. I’m hoping they are hanging around downtown causing havoc as teenage geese.
The goslings are so cute! Perhaps the ‘adults’ put their parenting skills in their checked bag and it got lost – carry on only as you know! I kind of have a love/hate relationship with geese. Love watching them, hate when the foul the water in the pond with their waste!
Haha good one about the luggage! That made me laugh out loud. Yes if the geese could use a litter box that would be helpful or a section of the park rather than every square inch.
Golfers!!! 🙁 I shall check our local park for the little fellers, Sue. There’s normally a good gang of the parents there. 🙂
Excellent and thank you Jo. That would be quite the flight for the little ones but never hurts to inquire. 🙂
i do welcome the sight of geese, Sue. for me it means i can put away winter coats and spring is pretty much on the way. not for hubby though who works as a ranger at a golf course, chasing geese pretty much all day. 🙂
Oh your poor husband probably has a very different view on geese! It must be quite the job. You and I shall have happy thoughts of geese while he struggles on.
I am going to stay with Jet’s version, that the goslings found higher ground…although if Mom and Dad were digesting a certain foliage….maybe….
I can so see the geese going after hikers, runners and bicyclist…they are aggressive when it comes to protecting their own…..the geese poop just adds another element of adventure for the pedestrians….great pics and great post Sue!! (here in the desert we are having Quail and their brood of young popping up everywhere….not the aggressive behavior and poop issues that come from the geese)
Perhaps quail are the perfect guests who are quiet, helpful and clean the bathroom before they leave. Geese are the guests who eat everything in the fridge, drink your wine fridge dry and then leave a trail of garbage on their way out the door.
Well I still adore those little yellow fluff balls. I’ll go with you and Jet and the higher ground proposal.
Lol….we have two lakes here in our community (ok any of us who have lived elsewhere would call them ponds) anyway…every winter we have a migration of ducks who stop off here from the north and take over the lakes and surrounding parks with just exactly what you described!! ?
Perhaps they are considering retiring in warner climates. 🙂
lol I certainly hope not
You are right, Canadian geese can be seen “everywhere”, far enough away from the equator, I assume. It is a bit worrisome that you haven’t seen the goslings yet… Maybe they are late this year? Maybe they have found an area with less foot and bicycle traffic? I am curious about your future observations, Sue.
Yes I think they stay away from the very hot climates Liesbet. The goslings that we saw a few weeks ago seem to have vanished but Dave did tell me he saw many families downtown in the parks there. That’s downstream from us so I’m hopeful they floated on down and managed to get out on the river banks.
We have lots of Canada geese here in San Diego. Most of them hang around the lakes and love it when visitors come by to give them some love, food, and attention. Dare I saw that I’m one of those visitors?
Thanks so much for sharing that the Canadians are visiting San Diego too! One is just naturally drawn to them. Have you seen goslings there recently?
Cuties 🙂
They are Joshi. Hopefully they are safe and sound downstream.
I think the goose in the park next to our house must be Canadian goose. They are adorable but they could be very protective towards their family 🙂
Likely they are Canadian Geese Indah. It is most common for them to be quite protective. I don’t know why these adults seem so relaxed.
I’m in Nashville and Canadian geese are everywhere. We used to live on a pond and they’d poop all over our back yard…goose poop is disgusting.
Especially on a deck I’m sure. Our geese seem to stay to the river banks thankfully.
Sue that’s some nice alliteration to herald the spring – ‘goose gosling gang’. You’re a poet and …
As you know I have a tiny fear of honking geese with wide spread wings charging toward me. A quick escape on paths covered in slimy geese droppings is fraught with danger. But I do wonder where the babies are. So many things can impact those cyclic occurrences we take for granted. It will be interesting to observe what happens now to the Geese population.
I will admit i do love playing with words. How can one resist with that kind of set up?
Being wary of charging geese is a reasonable stance to take. Their droppings really can be like mini slippery mine fields. I recently saw some ‘teenage’ looking geese .not in the numbers these wee ones were but perhaps some survived? I’m going ot hope that’s the case.
Teenage geese 🙂 I like that. There is hope then, I am so pleased.
I think so Shannyn. I wonder if the parents had them tucked high on the river bank somewhere. I hope that’s what happened.
Me too Sue.
Good news! We some a huge group of adolescent geese in the same are the goslings once were. Turns out the parents must have had most of them on safe ground.
Oh wow. That is good news. Yippee!
Thank you for letting me know Sue ???
So happy to see the awkward stage birds! I’m not sure all of them made it but definitely quite a few. I love a happy ending.
“Excuse me please I am a Canadian goose and as part of the Commonwealth I believe I deserve safe passage.”–> that made me laugh… so witty, dear Sue.
Truly interesting to learn about the Canadian geese annual migration… I also found quite interesting to read about the possibility of them getting “high” (?)… without even knowing it, ha…. Yes, marijuana is legal here too (for personal use)… Next doors Neighbors here have a few plants, which can be seen from my balcony.
Anyway, back to the core of the post, I have always admired Seasonal migratory birds, their determination and group spirit, above all… We humans can even learn from them, don´t you think?!.
Beautiful post, dear Sue … Love & best wishes to you.
PS: Did you remove the “Like”button… just asking you cause I don´t see it and maybe it just doesn´t work… ?
Always delighted to spread a few smiles my friend. With our laws changing in one year it seemed fitting to blame the relaxed goose status on some early sampling. Just kidding of course.
The like button had been causing problems on my site. One of the challenges of going to a self hosted site is that not all the plug ins like to get along with other working parts of the site. When I made the change over a year ago I lost all of the likes on previous posts so when the struggle came up I just decided to get rid of it. Thanks for asking.
Sending very best wishes and huge hugs across the miles. Thank you for the kind feedback.
We are very connected via geese. In spring I love hearing the geese honk as they fly above us north toward you all. Some do stop at our farmlands, but most keep on going to keep you company. I most love hearing the geese honk as they move away from the north in the fall and fly south. It is such a haunting sound. Fortunately around here they only stop at the golf clubs and the farms-not a more citified atmosphere. ?
Its funny how they pick and choose their locations. Why inner city Calgary is such a draw I’m not sure. I suppose they are quite protected here and with two rivers in the city they certainly have enough water. I love the thought of so many people all over the world hearing their distinctive honking at various times of the year. A lovely connection.
While I was reading the conversation between you and Tish I kept thinking how I would like to have Canadian geese in Zagreb, droppings or not :D. We are having really aggressive crows in addition to pigeons. I only saw Canadian geese in England. Very nice photos, Sue, especially the one of mother goose with two babies. It’s children picture book perfect!
Oh my heart is melting when I see these little fluffy Gosling !! awwww very cute pictures. When I think too much about bird migration (and it happens), I often wondered if it’s really useful to fly that many miles just for a few extra degrees (especially with global warming). Is it worth it? So many of them must die in the journey…
The Canada Goose finds a mate during its second year and once paired, the geese remain together for life. Contrary to popular belief, however, if one member of the pair is killed, the other will find a new mate. Canada Geese breed earlier in the season than many birds. Breeding is timed so that the eggs hatch when the plants that the goslings, or young geese, eat have their highest nutritional value. The hatch date also allows enough time for the goslings to grow big enough to fly south before freeze-up. Canada Geese that breed in temperate areas, with mild temperatures, begin nesting as soon as conditions are favourable in spring, in some cases as early as mid-March. Canada Geese that breed in the north reach nesting areas in late April or early May, later for Arctic breeders. Some Canada Geese breed when they are one year old, but the vast majority do not nest for the first time until they are at least two or three. Usually five to seven eggs are laid, with older birds producing more eggs than birds nesting for the first time. The female incubates the eggs for 25 to 28 days while the male stands guard nearby. In some cases, he may be several hundred metres from the nest but is always vigilant and joins the female if the nest is threatened or if she leaves the nest. During the incubation period the female leaves the nest only briefly each day to feed and drink and bathe. Most nest sites are located near water and often on islands. Nest sites are chosen to offer some protection from exposure to wind while giving the incubating female a clear line of sight to detect approaching predators. Female Canada Geese always return to nest in the same area where their parents nested and often use the same nest site year after year.