Nothing exciting this week – with the exception of what’s already been posted, it’s been slow here, with a lot of rain, and believe me, I don’t consider Canada geese (Branta canadensis) anything remarkable. That said, as they started moving from the lower pond to the main pond right out back, we decided to see if we could habituate them a little better to our presence, which worked – well, you can see for yourself.
The Girlfriend did the video this time, from the back deck, while I did the Jim Fowler thing and tried to get my ass kicked, but the geese were quite well-behaved. A lot of people seem to feel they’re wickedly territorial as a species, but I suspect that’s only in areas where they’re constantly being harassed – I’ve never seen it myself, and at the pond near the previous Walkabout Estates, they were quite congenial, especially when food was involved.
Notice, in the video, that I spend a fair amount of time looking away casually, and this is on purpose – staring is predator behavior. You might be amazed how well this simple technique causes wildlife to drop its guard a little more – though I’m not entirely sure that these guys weren’t already habituated to people to some extent, because they certainly seemed to recognize the corn from the moment I started tossing it out. In the few days since this video was shot, another pair has started coming by, a little shyer than these, but still coming up for food from both of us now, and it’s beginning to become a regular occurrence. Not only that, but the wood ducks have started coming onshore now, a distinct improvement, though whether this is due to finding the corn, seeing the geese doing it, or simply because they’re entering mating season and thus less wary (well, concentrating harder on other things,) I can’t say for sure.
We have a small addition, from just yesterday, only it’s not from Walkabout Estates but a few kilometers away.
Initially, I thought these were snow geese in winter and spring plumage, since I’d never seen the species before, but upon looking those up, I found this was not the case; not only that, but they didn’t seem to be any of the goose species that can be found in North America. Wild, that is, because eventually I determined that these are most likely a domestic Roman goose (white, on the right) and a hybrid with a Canada goose (darker one – notice the Canada’s distinctive white face stripe showing up.) There were several of each there, as well as several Canadas, more than a handful of mallards, and one Muscovy, another domestic breed. Discarded or escaped? Who knows, but it happens often enough either way. So, no real wildlife capture, but cool-looking all the same.