Hello there!

With momma goose standing watch behind them, her 21 day old baby goslings came to greet me and stood on this little ledge and greeted me with their sweet little trilling sounds. The little one on the right I named him Tiny. I’m within 6 inches of them. This happened on a daily basis every time I went to see them. I would feed them a little bit of cracked corn but that wasn’t the reason they came up to me. We had a special bond especially one that I established with the adults last summer. They have a great memory and are so lovable. However, if anyone else tried to approach them they would run away and then return to me when they were gone. I felt like Mother Goose sometimes…they’d follow me around the cemetery in Mystic by their pond. This is my favorite photo of them. To be able to gently pet them showed such trust. Unfortunately, due to the man who took care of this large cemetery and a complaint from a non-bird person, and during molting season when not even the adults could fly yet, he set off loud firecrackers (like M80s) and chased them with air horns. They were almost 2 months old. They fled to the Mystic River but every time they tried to come back to their summer pond of over 13 years, he chased them again. 21 baby goslings and their parents were ousted from their home and it broke my heart. Look at these beautiful creatures. They were so happy to be where they loved and then were forced out into the scary world amongst some people who really dislike the Canada goose. These birds get such a bad rap and it’s unfair because people don’t want to be educated, instead they want to dispose of them. One way the CT Dept of Energy & Environmental Protection proposes removing them is to trap them when they don’t have their flight feathers and to “humanely break their necks” and as mentioned on the news once to “feed them to the homeless.” Let’s help protect our wildlife. We share this world with them too.