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Saturday, May 29, 2010

One Big Happy Family

I've been telling you lately that I was going to go on a search for the geese that seemingly have disappeared from my area. I've been wondering if maybe their population had greatly diminished somehow. Well, they'll definitely be back if the geese in my pictures today have anything to say about it!

What you see above is a scene with two adult Canada Geese and their young. They're swimming along very far out on a pretty good sized lake. I had to zoom in as far as my camera would go to get this close. There is a very good reason I did this. Can you see what that reason is?

Count the geese.

What you see in the pictures are two adult geese and at least twenty of their little goslings(babies). That's right, I said twenty! I have no idea how this pair of geese ended up with twenty babies, but there they are. Everything I've ever read says that one mother goose will have seven eggs. If one is damaged or stolen, then she will lay another one, always to equal seven.

I'm not sure if that's exactly true, but seven is the number of eggs that the goose I watched last year had. Go see for yourself. Even if the idea of seven isn't 100% true, how can one mother goose sit on twenty eggs at one time? Look at them. Those babies are pretty much all the same size! They were born together. And I said before, at least twenty. There may be more.

Now of course, there could be another explanation. Maybe the adults aren't one female and one male, which I consider highly unlikely. Maybe they are two females together, combining both of their full compliment of little ones together. Still, that's a little too many goslings even for two geese. So, what's the answer?

Maybe they're the goose babysitters. Maybe they're child abductors. Maybe they adopted these other babies. Maybe they collect babies from all over the world, like some of those crazy entertainers do. No matter what they've done, this is one huge goose family.

And I definitely do believe one of those two adults is a male and one is a female. I've watched geese enough to know this by the order in which they swim. And yes, those are swans in the background. I have a future post or two to talk about swans, including some excellent pictures. I think a huge family of geese like this deserve their own story though, don't you?

Tell me what you think happened here? How did this family get so big? Any theory is welcome. A rational explanation would be good, and a completely loony one would be really fun. So, what do you think?

16 comments:

  1. Well, maybe some of the little ones are relatives, nieces or nephews, and their parents met with mishap. Being the kind aunt and uncle that they are, they adopted the orphaned brood.

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  2. Canada geese form large groups called creches. This allows adults to watch over another mated pairs goslings while the adults take a little time off, usually to fly around and get some exercise. It's kind of like a cooperative child care facility. Pretty common, I believe.

    Bill:www.wildramblings.com

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  3. Could this be the making of a goose cult? I just feel sorry for the mother goose, how can she remember all their names and keep them all straight?

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  4. I watched one large family of 19 last year and they stayed together even with adult plummage.These must not have heard it is easier at seven.Did see a doe who adopted two others to go with her two. It was fun to watch them go through a closed campground everyday late in the afternoon.

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  5. Thanks Bill

    I thought they hadn't learned to honk yet and got in a traffic jam.

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  6. Awww, cute shots! I love the babies.

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  7. I'm sure they are from different mothers and that one is just babysitting..Ha! What a great opportunity to see all those little geese! That's one thing I never see.

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  8. Maybe they set up a gosling day care, and waited till mom and dad came back from work

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  9. We must have learned from them about child care, but we are a step better, we collect money.

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  10. maybe they are gosling minders...getting into the swing of things to see if they want to have their own young!! Okay...that seems silly...but then again can't come up with an explanation which is logical unless a tragedy was involved.....maybe if something happened so more goslings were introduced to these geese to reinstate them back into the wild?!?! If you ever find out do let us know Ratty

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  11. LOL, Love Ann's remark about how can the poor Mother Goose remember who is who and all their names. Could be that the Mother goose just made a mistake and laid way too many eggs. It happens.
    Have a great weekend.

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  12. I too would have guessed that it was one or two geese babysitting three sets of babies. More animals form communities than you would think. Including cats. ;-)

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  13. Ooh..that's a big family! What a successful year for this pair of geese.

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  14. How fantastic! I just took photos of one couple with six babies..but never saw just two adults with THIS many babies!!!! I bet those youngin's kept the adults busy!

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  15. I think it is a geese daycare or maybe the male goose has 3 goose wives?

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  16. Maybe they are all just hitch hikers, traveling along for a fun swim. Or they could be a class out on a field trip. It's funny because I noticed they were absent at the gardens for a while and now they are back.

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