Family afternoon in the swamp.
Canadian geese mate for life, so I’m guessing that these two have come to a mutually-satisfying agreement about parenting. Dad takes a nap standing on one leg on his own little island with his head tucked up over his back and mom grooms herself while the kids swim in their soup. Some of the goslings – there are 10 of them in all – have strayed from the front yard and are exploring an interesting channel downstream a ways. Those that are brave enough may join a gang brood with other adolescents.
It’s a steamy afternoon in late July and the swamp is a thick undulating muck of aromatic duckweed, sedges, sweet wood reed, pondweed, bulrush, a dozen kinds of mosses, fowl manna grass, cattails, water parsnips and jewelweed.
“It’s not that geese can fly. It’s that they choose to.”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
The family will hang out here through August while the youngsters grow their flight feathers and start learning about aviation. After scores of awkward flights and comical crash landings they’ll all adjust their white chin straps and start talking about heading South.
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