Poor Geese

Good News – Sat. April 30

First goslings were sighted, appropriately, on Easter Sunday, so all is not lost. Easter was late this year. Does anyone know why Xmas is located in the Solar calendar year and Easter by the Lunar calendar?

About 5 days old - so fuzzy the camera has trouble focusing on them.

 

Sat. May 23 – Spring of 2011 was a tough season for the geese on the Maumee.

The troubles started in Feb when strange goose behaviour was seen.  The ice saved some carcasses for official analysis, otherwise they would have been washed away – we still await results.

Toledo Blade. Page 1

Toledo Blade, Page 2

Then, in April came winds and floods

Almost half the Small Island gets flooded by a strong East Wind

Flood receded with west wind revealing moved eggs and confused geese

Eggs washed out of nests by high water 4/15

The heavy eggs weigh 200 gm (nearly half a pound) each and were very fresh. A hungry squirrel came and sniffed but did not know what to do with it. I counted 43 lost eggs in all.

Maple Leaf Mussel (?) Six years old by the rings? It was lying on the mud, open and cleaned when the West wind emptied the river.

Half a dozen nests on the heights survived the flood. They're fiercely guarded

The lower lawn is cut and now, still hungry, and so heavy with new eggs, she sits on the middle lawn and eats non-stop. Her mate stands guard nearby.

The next task is to clean up the myriad lost lures from the many Walleye fisherfolk now standing in the river upstream from 341.

Lost lures float downstream and hang up on branches - a hazzard to all.

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