woody, hovander and the kids...

On Wednesday we were surprised to find that Hovander, a goose that we've had for almost 15 years, hatched out a couple of goslings. She had been sitting on eggs for a number of weeks. She does this every year. If it's not eggs, its anything remotely roundish that she can find to sit on. Last year we found a gander and put them in a pen together. It certainly wasn't love at first sight - as a matter of fact, it seemed like they hated each other with passions that only geese can evoke... but apparently they got along better than we realized...

Hovander had made her nest in a corner of the barn. There was a pile of straw and some feathers but no food source of any kind. We didn't really know what to do about getting those little ones some food especially since Hovander would hiss like a demon and charge at us with outstretched wings if we came within 10 feet of her goslings.

This morning I went to the barn and she was by the sliding door with her babies. I left the door open and she wandered out. She attacked our overly amorous drake and hissed like mad at Norman but once everyone learned to stay away from the little flock it was OK. Eventually she stood in front of Woody's pen (he's the father) and called to him. He came and stood by the gate and once the coast was somewhat clear, Sara opened the gate, ran for her life and this is what we witnessed....



Woody had never seen his offspring before and we didn't know what to expect. Initially it looks like Woody is just happy to be out of his pasture and is thinking of going out with the boys. But Hovander calls him back and seems to tell him that it's his turn to watch the kids for a while. He watched them as closely as Hovander did and she had a few minutes to go for a swim in the big puddle on the driveway. It was pretty amazing to watch the instinctual parenting skills of those two birds - people could learn a lot from a couple of geese...