James Etheridge

The parking lot of the Ingles where we shop is pretty much always home to flocks of Canadian geese. They hang out around the parking lot, sleep next to the retention pond and leave calling cards as geese are wont to do. In the last week or so, however, something strange has happened. They have all disappeared, save for one lone mother who is nesting against a tree in one of the islands. Someone has put a water bowl out for her, as well as leaving her bits of lettuce. I thought it was kind of cool at first, but I now am beginning to become concerned about her. She is all alone, there is no mate close by guarding her and no other geese to be seen in the area. I have begun to check on her daily. She moves around on the nest, but I don’t know if she is incubating, if she is injured, if she lost her mate or has been abandoned by her flock. I contacted the AWARE Wildlife Center at Arabia Mountain in Lithonia, Georgia, spoke with Alex and expressed my concerns about Mother Goose. She first asked if I could tell if the bird had been injured and I told her no, I could not see if she had been hurt. I did some research this morning on the nesting habits of geese, read that the gestation period is about twenty-eight days and the bird’s mate is usually close by guarding her. Alex said that what I was describing was really not unusual, that the geese usually nest away from water to avoid predators. As far as there being no mate present, it does not necessarily mean that she has lost hers, that he could be searching for food and that they could be taking turns on the nest. I told her that I will continue to monitor Mother Goose daily and will contact the center if anything changes. So, I will post an update later and hopefully we’ll have some little goslings waddling around the parking lot soon.  In the meantime, if you see a YouTube video of a man getting attacked by a protective goose in an Ingle’s parking lot, that most likely will be me. I’ll try not to scream and make too big of a fool out of myself.