Date: 3/28/24 7:44 pm From: cynthia burkhart <000000990b36e23b-dmarc-request...> Subject: Another goosey story
This morning, I watched a Canada goose fly into the front yard, make kind-of a sloppy landing, then make a short flight into the pond. I wasn’t paying close attention, and just assumed it was the male that is here every day, while his mate is over at the big pond on her nest. A few minutes later, my husband came in and said I needed to take a close look at the goose in the front pond. So I did, and this was definitely not our resident goose. Much to my surprise, this goose was wearing a bright orange collar! A narrow buckled collar, such as one might put on a cat.
Well, I didn’t think this was a good thing, and set out to attempt to remove the collar. I got a cup of scratch and a shallow feed dish, and an old blanket . My idea was, if I could get the goose to come to the food, I could throw the blanket over him and cut off the collar.
All started out well. I poured the grain into the dish , held it out in front of myself, and called the goose to come and eat. He responded immediately, obviously used to being fed, and was happily eating right in front of me…until I threw the blanket. He was out from under it instantly and retreated about 20 ‘. So okay, I thought, I’ll wait until my husband can help….but we had the same results. I had to resign myself to the fact that we weren’t going to get the collar off this goose.
About 5 minutes later, our resident male goose flew into the pond and aggressively chased the collared interloper out of the pond. It hasn’t returned.
Before all this drama, I saw a FOY brown thrasher.
Cynthia Burkhart
Ritchie
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