The Story of Canada Goose

Several beautiful ponds are located near our neighborhood. Vermonter’s passion for nature keeps these ponds away from pollution and cultivation. These are the places you can find beavers working on their dams, great blue herons hunting their prey and wild ducks making the splash. They are tough wild animals which adapt to the environment very well. Even a busy road like Kennedy Drive, a main road connecting to the airport, doesn't bother too much to their lives. With the background of traffic noise, you can still hear the birds singing and watch the beavers swimming. In the summer, the visit of Canada geese puts more tones to this nature symphony and has become one of the featured summer scenes in South Burlington. They attracted many residents including my family in the past two years and left so many interesting stories.

My dad was the first person who told me about the coming of geese. He is a kindly Chinese old man who does not speak a single word of English. But he was brave enough to travel 36 hours from the other side of earth to visit me in the past two summers. He came to help me moving into my first purchased house and took care of my boy during school breaks. I was so lucky to have him when my husband was in China and his stay gave me so many sweet memoirs, especially his passion and careful observation to these wild animals in our neighborhood. Almost every evening, when I went home, he would tell me the news about these birds and then lead me to see the geese after dinner. On the paved road near the ponds, we talked about geese, watched the baby geese play, observed their new tricks and blessed them on their way back south in fall. The stories they left are mixed with happiness and sadness, just like the stories that happen everyday in this world.

The coming of three couples of geese was big news in May 2009. They spread equally along the road to build their summer home. One couple bred two babies, and another one had four. From my dad’s vivid descriptions, we knew the baby geese came; on our evening walk, we watched and admired their play. Sometime, they were bold enough to eat grass between the traffic lines, caring nothing about the noise and dust. People kindly slowed down their cars and patiently waited for them to pass. The first year was a good year with all babies grown up and left in the fall, leaving beautiful memories and some annoyance of poops on the pave roads.

The geese returned at the same time in the second summer. Still three couples, but it was hard to see who was who. The return of these summer guests made the local people excited; news and pictures were published on local newspapers and attracted more people to watch them. During the busy breeding time, one couple bravely nested on a small wood stand near the paved road which made the Mom’s hard work totally exposed. In vigorous thunderstorm, under the heavy sunshine, after 45 days, the Mom worked very hard with dedication and stubborn. However the average hatching time for Canada goose was 23 days. When the poor mom finally gave up and left the only one egg in the nest, we all so touched by her motherhood and wished she could have a better year next.

The other two couples chose to do their job secretly and opened the veil when the kids were ready for show. They had great success; one couple had four babies and another had six. However, the successful beginning did not last long. Two weeks after the birth of their six babies, the Mom was sick. She looked very tired.She still ate but food stuck in her neck; she still walk but her body twisted in a painful way. Her six energetic kids stayed closely around her, still play, still happy. They were too young to understand what was going on. My dad told me that the mom goose must be exhausted by breeding and he didn't think she can get through it. Sometimes, life has to be exchanged.And he was right, several days after that talk, the mom goose disappeared. My dad told me later that her body was collected by wild animal preservation people. After that, the goose dad carried the entire task to take care of their six kids.

These two big families were polite neighbors and didn't hang out too close; they had their own territories. The young geese grew tremendously fast. After several weeks, the baby’s down was replaced by beautiful feathers and it was hard to identify the kids from parents merely by size. However, when we expected another happy year for them, this little goose society was attacked one night and the lose was huge. Nobody knew what had happened, and my dad’s dedicated investigation didn't bring any clues. What we knew was that the single father family lost five kids and the four kids’ family lost two children. Maybe, they were attacked by wild animal, or maybe not wild animal. After that, these two families grouped together and we saw the three parents and three remain children closely bounded. They were more alert to people and more sensitive to any interference. I never saw them separate and this rebuilt family finally migrated south together.

This year, my dad didn't visit, neither the geese. I wish the geese find better places to live and I wish my dad had chances to watch migrated geese in China. Like the grown up young goose, I left my hometown, flight to a different country and built my nest for my family. No matter how many difficulties I meet in my life, I know my Dad is always behind me. Right now, I am thirty thousand miles away from him, but I can hear his voice when walking on the paved road near the ponds, I can see his smile among the shining lights over the pond, and I can feel his breath in the fresh spring breeze. Whenever it happens, my dad is in my heart.

Dongdong Lin 11 年，2 月 ago

First time hear the Canadian geese story. Hope they will be back again.

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作者: sunny 11 年，3 月 ago

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Dongdong Lin 11 年，2 月 ago

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