James Etheridge

An update on Mother Goose, our Canadian goose nesting in the Ingle’s parking lot on Salem Road in Conyers. Unfortunately, the news is not good. About three weeks ago, I stopped in Ingle’s on the way home from the golf course to check on her. She was gone from the nest. There were two eggs, one in the nest and one beside it. Both had been compromised. The egg in the nest was still whole, but cracked in several places. The one beside the nest was only half of a shell and nothing was in it. The goose was nowhere to be seen.

Devastated, I called my friend Beth at Blue Ridge Raptors in Blue Ridge, Georgia. When Mother Goose was nesting in the same spot last year, she helped me to understand the habits of Canadian geese. I explained to her that a tornado had struck Conyers a week earlier and I had checked on the goose immediately afterwards. She was still on the nest and I gave her water. Now, a week later she was gone. Beth said that there was no way of telling what had happened. Maybe a predator had run her off. Maybe she had decided to leave herself. It’s also possible, and I sincerely hope that this was not the case, that someone had hurt her or chased her away and destroyed the eggs. Whatever had happened, I stopped by Ingle’s the next day and the eggs were gone. The nest is still there as are the down feathers in it.

So, there were no goslings in the Ingle’s parking lot this year. Most have hatched by now, as I have seen them at the lakes around our neighborhood. I only hope that Mother Goose is okay. And as much as I like checking on her, leaving her water and food and anticipating the goslings hatching, I hope she doesn’t come back next year. I hope she nests somewhere more sensible, away from the dangers of cars, people and who knows what else in the Ingle’s parking lot. We shall see.