Rose Cottage Ltd

For anyone who has followed the progress of the goslings born on the lake in 2012, here’s a quick update.

There was a bit of problem when the stray dog showed up Memorial Day weekend. The adult geese decided the newcomer did not look very well trained in goose etiquette and they left the lake for almost two weeks.

Unfortunately, when the two families returned, both males and one gosling from each family were missing. I’ve never had this happen since I’ve been at the lake – for males to just go missing.

Since the two groups were traveling together, I fear that a raccoon or fox, or maybe even a bobcat attacked the group. The males probably tried to defend and died, allowing the females and the 7 remaining goslings to escape. Nothing short of death would make the male geese leave their family.

This is very sad for the remaining “Moms” since geese mate for life and my little favorite Mother Goose, Daisy, will never nest at Rose Cottage again. But some of HER children may…

You can see earlier pictures of these two groups in my prior post. Down to 3 goslings in the younger group and 4 in the first-born group.

Here are the pre-teenagers now at 6 1/2 weeks:

And here is one from the older group of goslings, now at about 8 1/2 weeks:

You can see a huge difference in just the two-week gap in age. The older goslings look much more “goose-like” until you get really close and notice the quills still awaiting full feathers!

There are still many predators lurking around the far end of the lake, in the lake (snapping turtles,) and in the 180 acre wooded property behind mine. Hopefully, these two groups will continue to hang together and keep all the goslings safe to maturity.