Normally at this time of year, the area around the building where I work is full of geese. In spring, Canada Geese land at their favorite breeding areas, mate, promptly lose their flight feathers and spend the next few months raising their families. By May there are goslings up the wazoo. Some parents have five or more young to look after. It was a privilege to witness the miracle of birth from inside the office, as some nests have been built close to our ground floor windows. Once all the goslings hatch, the mother destroys and abandons the nest, takes the youngsters to the nearest body of water and the fast lessons in how to become geese begins. By September, the youngsters look just like the parents, and soon they take flight, along with their parents with their new flight feathers grown in. The process has gone on that way for years.
This year I have seen one nest with one egg in it, and the mother abandoned it days later. So far, no baby geese have arrived. It might be the late onset of spring, and there could simply be a slight delay, orchestrated by Mother Nature, to give the wildlife a chance to catch up to what they should have been doing in March or so. Darned snow inconvenienced everybody.
We often don’t think about wildlife, but creatures who don’t have houses actually had to survive in the horrendous conditions we detested from indoors (with the occasional power outage). It’s amazing they can stay alive, let alone make little versions of themselves. Outside, in the cold, with no accompanying Barry White music.
Of course, we humans will likely see an uptick in births starting in August and running into next winter. We don’t wait until the call of spring and nature, and we have the Barry White recordings when there is no power outage. We’ll have to wait and see if nature comes through. I know that some folks don’t care about geese. With all those birds comes bird poop, after all. But their place in the animal kingdom does matter, so I hope to see some good signs soon.
Susan's Scribblings the Blog 