30 జూన్, 2025

Too many goslings.


This morning on Lake Mendota, 5:37 a.m.
వీరిచే పోస్ట్ చేయబడింది Ann Althouse వద్ద 6:33 AM
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27 కామెంట్‌లు:

mezzrow చెప్పారు...

And when that lake is frozen again, they'll be leaving us "presents" and barking at me in my Publix parking lot.

Watch your step.

30-06-25 6:39 AM
rehajm చెప్పారు...

…an interesting hunting trophy is to shoot enough of them to acquire a string of the little metal goose tags with sequential numbers. My aunt had five one year and had them plated in silver for a necklace…

30-06-25 6:45 AM
The Vault Dweller చెప్పారు...

Border jumpers

30-06-25 6:45 AM
Kevin చెప్పారు...

Which one is Ryan?

30-06-25 6:52 AM
JAORE చెప్పారు...

The laws protecting migratory birds are insanely over broad. Here in Alabama many geese no longer migrate. Instead every body of open water is surrounded by these poop factories.
I say we go E, Scrooge on them come Christmas dinner time.

30-06-25 7:31 AM
Mary E. Glynn చెప్పారు...

I see one or two gosling and a bunch of mature geese in the herd. Shouldn't we be culling the elder geese, not the younger ones if you're going to tag them? Maybe talk to a biologist about what you are seeing here if you think that is "too many". It's really not. It's their lakes and flyway you're living/exercising in with your camera. Why bother them, I don't get it?

30-06-25 7:32 AM
Mary E. Glynn చెప్పారు...

It's like, legally, someone could pop out of the bushes, or pass you along on a run pull out a camera and start circling you but... why? Why do it to these creatures? Once you intrude, you have to know you're not capturing their natural behavior but their response to you. See the heads down and them lining up to get in away from you? Protecting the one or two small ones remaining? Just leave em alone and talk with your husband while you walk/run. Put down the camera while you walk your body. Talk to your partner if you have to converse... the animals are not there for our entertainment what is left of them.

30-06-25 7:35 AM
Rocco చెప్పారు...

Kevin said...
“Which one is Ryan?”

The one that’s been photoshopped into the Black Panther movie poster with the tag line “Mendota Forever!”

30-06-25 7:49 AM
Southern Pessimist చెప్పారు...

There was a smaller, similar line of baby geese following their mother across the eight fairway Friday. As Ronnie was lining up his shot, I told him that it was OK to get a birdie but if his shot killed one of those geese I would not play with him again. He ignored me and promptly shanked it fifty yards wide of the birds.

30-06-25 8:04 AM
Jaq చెప్పారు...

I agree. If a goose with these markings is not in Canada in late June, it's not a Canada Goose, it's no longer migratory in the same way, and should have the same rules for taking them as there are for coyotes or pigeons. It's a different species now, and a dirty one at that, but still they are protected by the Federal regulations on migratory birds.

30-06-25 8:22 AM
BudBrown చెప్పారు...

Watch out for fat owls falling from the trees.

30-06-25 8:42 AM
Quaestor చెప్పారు...

This unusually large goose family likely is a case of brood parasitism. Konrad Lorenz convincingly demonstrated at hatchling geese can imprint on the first moving object they see, including a pair orange polka-dotted wellies worn by a grad student.

brood parasitism happens when a gravid bird lays its egg in a nest belonging to another bird where it will be incubated and rear by the unrelated and involuntary foster parents. A well-known and destructive example of nest parasitism is the normal reproductive strategy of the European cuckoo. These birds never build nests and never rear their own young. The species survives entirely by imposition. The cuckoo egg usually hatches first, sometimes with a two or three day head start on its nestmates which are pushed out of the nest before they can hatch as well, leaving the cuckoo chick alone to receive all the care and food the deceived parents can provide.

Brood parasitism among waterfowl isn't nearly nearly so savage, and it may be so common as to be the typical case. It's mostly seen where nesting space is restricted. The closer the nests are the more likely the nests will contain stranger's eggs. Often the intruder egg isn't even laid by goose. Wood duck eggs are sometimes found among a clutch of Canada goose eggs.

30-06-25 9:03 AM
Quaestor చెప్పారు...

Another explanation of this unusually large group of goslings is crèche behavior -- two or more family of goslings grouped together under the cooperative care of the the adult parents. Crèches are usually formed by sister geese -- former nestmates who have been migrating together and nesting in close proximity. I can see only one certain adult goose in the photo, which makes me doubt these goslings are members of a crèche.

30-06-25 9:17 AM
Tina Trent చెప్పారు...

You can't shoot and eat them? What fools run your state? Excess geese are disgusting but a good meal dead.

30-06-25 9:50 AM
Tina Trent చెప్పారు...

Makes me think of the film Dr. T and the Women, for some reason.

30-06-25 9:52 AM
Quaestor చెప్పారు...

Brood parasitism may be the most advantageous reproductive strategy. A widowed goose probably won't reproduce that season unless some of her eggs were laid in nests not her own. Once the brooding period begins the eggs require constant warmth. A cooling of as little as 3 degrees can kill the embryo. Without a mate to spell her, a goose will be compelled to abandon her eggs or die from starvation. Consequently, an imposition on a neighbor's clutch functions as a reproductive insurance policy.

The same imperative also explains male infidelity. Though Canada geese are famously mated for life, that doesn't prevent Mr. Gander from getting busy with someone else's wife from time to time. Overall, such shenanigans are beneficial and usually harmless to all concerned. Geese, ducks, and many other waterfowl are precocial birds, meaning their young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment they hatch, and are able to walk, swim, and feed themselves shortly after birth. They need protection from predators, and they need to learn where to forage, which accounts for those charming processions that stop traffic. Nevertheless, predators, including large mouth bass, take their share. Attrition whittles them down relentlessly despite the valiant and intimidating defences geese and swan can mount. Out of a clutch of up 12 eggs (of them only five or six laid by the rightful owner of the nest) if four live to fledge and migrate, then it's a successful breeding season.

30-06-25 10:32 AM
FredSays చెప్పారు...

We used to have huge gosling numbers around here until there were a lot more coyotes. Goslings aren’t Road Runners.

30-06-25 10:33 AM
hombre చెప్పారు...

Canada’s first line of defense.

30-06-25 10:42 AM
Peachy చెప్పారు...

Unfortunately - Canadian geese are not good eats.

30-06-25 11:04 AM
n.n చెప్పారు...

Duck dynasty.

30-06-25 11:22 AM
Temujin చెప్పారు...

What an absolutely beautiful morning. I think I recognize one of them as the one who crapped on my driveway last winter.

30-06-25 11:58 AM
Quaestor చెప్పారు...
ఈ కామెంట్‌ను రచయిత తీసివేశారు.
30-06-25 12:07 PM
Quaestor చెప్పారు...

"Goslings aren’t Road Runners."

But roadrunners are cuckoos and obligate and insidious brood parasites that destroy the eggs of their hosts in order to monopolize their caregiving. Therefore, I cheer on Wiley Coyote's ingenious traps and ambuscades on behalf of all Chihuahuan meadowlarks.

30-06-25 12:08 PM
walter చెప్పారు...

Undocumented.

30-06-25 12:41 PM
rehajm చెప్పారు...

If you do it right they taste like ribeye cap…

30-06-25 1:41 PM
Iman చెప్పారు...

Too many goslings dodging fishing hooks
Too many swimming in this part of lake
Too many walleyes swim with hungry looks
Too many waiting for that lucky break

30-06-25 1:43 PM
Rusty చెప్పారు...

Tina Trent said...
"You can't shoot and eat them? What fools run your state? Excess geese are disgusting but a good meal dead."

Illinois has a special early goose season in Sept. Five geese a day for five days. After that goose season starts with the regular duck season with a limit of two per day. until the middle of Jan.

30-06-25 3:40 PM

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