Saturday, glad for a distraction from the rules committee stress, I posted a diary about the two adult Canada geese who somehow ended up prancing around a desert hillside with newly hatched goslings. We've never seen geese hang around in the desert. So we figured they were distressed by some developer changing their pond or river habitat, wherever that may have been. That happens a lot around here.
The poor geese tried hard to protect their tiny hatchlings, but the harsh landscape offered unfriendly odds. Plus, even though we filled a wading pool for them, the desert here is inhospitable to water birds.
UPDATE: The Canada geese parents abandoned their goslings. We rescued the shivering, hungry babies as dusk swept over the mountain, and posted photos of them on my bird art blog because it is such an odd story.
They are settling in with fresh organic spinach from the garden and water-softened chick feed. We put some grit in their drinking water and they are HAPPY. Even though their parents abandoned them one cold night, these goslings won the goose lottery. They were hatched at a ranch that has hens for organic eggs! The owner of the ranch knows all about how to raise birds.
There are several excellent river banks and ponds around, but they are many miles from here. We will release them to the company of more geese when they are independent enough. We are thinking of a city green way where humans walk near pretty tame geese, because these little guys are going to imprint and not be afraid of people. Enjoy the photos.