A Cute Gosling

 

Here's a cute picture of an adorable baby goose. They waddle on to the lawn through a hole in the fence and nibble on the delicate grass. What can be cuter than a baby bird?

Baby Goose (Canada Gosling)

Aren't baby geese cute?

Lake Nelson's first goslings of the year have hatched

 

We located a few Canada goose nests while out on our boat earlier in the month. We stopped by yesterday and saw that four baby geese had hatched.

We've adoped a baby goose

 

 

We have a fence up to prevent the geese from entering our yard and we normally don't feed geese, but Mike has a soft spot for babies. When Mike was photographing the gosling the other evening, he fed them some cracked corn. The family has come by twice a day since then. We have been feeding on the lake side of the fence so they don't enter the yard. It was rainy this morning and we skipped the morning feeding. By lunch time, somehow the goose family was in the yard, so Mike fed them anyway. Soon, he'll be inviting them in the hot tub.

Baby Goose

 

 

A lone gosling came by with its two parents this evening. This is our first baby photo of the season, but there will be more.

More Birds

 

We read that the Robin turns its head not to listen for worms but to look for them.

 

The male goldfinches are a bright yellow this time of year. The females aren't nearly as colorful.

 

A Canada Goose sitting on her nest. We've seen some goslings the past few days, but they aren't plentiful yet.

 

We usually post profiles of the Red Bellied Woodpecker, but here he's showing off his red belly. They are very awkward on flat surfaces

Eastern Kingbird

Ice Geese

 

 

Here's another picture of a snow goose resting on the ice for Marian. For a few days, the geese would find a small unfrozen area to swim in, but the lake is now completely frozen over.

The geese, or at least the photographers, are thinking about warmer climates.

Female Ruddy Duck looking for some friends

We haven't been posting much recently. We were busy with our older daughter visiting us from California. The lake was frozen which cut down on the number of waterfowl we see. It's been gray and cloudy. Chris' heart grew two sizes and she put up two Christmas trees.

Anyway, Chris spotted a small duck two days back. At first, we thought it was a grebe, but when we got the binoculars, we saw it was a lone female ruddy duck. She was trying to hang out with other ducks but the mallards, ring-necked ducks, and Canade Geese snubbed her. At least our daughter got to see some of the fancy ducks, even if some were not on their best behavior.

Snow Accumulating on Canada Geese

 

 

We are back in New Jersey after visiting our children in California. We also visited a few bird watching areas in Southern California. We did see a few Canada geese when we were there. However, we had to come back to New Jersey to see a lake with ice on it and snow accumulating on the Canada Geese. Perhaps it's a good day to have a down blanket.

Geese

The Canada Geese are by far the most numerous waterfowl on the lake. They can be a bit of a nuisance and are the reason that most people have fences on the lakefront.

Canada Goose

"Whitey," as we call her, is a white goose. We aren't sure what type of goose she is. At first, we thought she was a snow goose, but the snow goose has a much different shape to its beak. Whitey is more domesticated than the other geese and we speculate that she may have been a domestic goose that is now out in the wild. It's hard to call her wild. She seems to enjoy handouts more than the wild geese. She notices when the first light goes on in the morning and appears just in case we have something. She'll get up on the dock and attempt to join in a snack or a conversation. She'll get involved in our yard work.

Whitey

Some neighbors have told us that in the past she's laid eggs and had goslings. There don't appear to be any this year. We have seen her mating with the Canada geese. So that brings up the question as to why there are some geese with white heads but mostly Canada Goose markings. We've read that Canada Geese can interbreed with Snow Geese and produce goslings with similar markings. We don't know if these are Whitey's offspring.

Hybrid Goose?

Below is another goose with unusual markings (at least to us). The goose above is the same size as the Canada Goose. The one below is noticeably larger, but hangs out with Whitey often as well as the Canada Geese.

Hybrid Goose?

Whitey and the larger hybrid goose

All Together Now

We really don't know what is going on. If you do, leave a comment (by clicking on the word comments below as in "0 comments" or "1 comment").

Juvenile Canada Goose

How quickly they grow up. Just last month, the goslings were yellow fluff balls. Now the juvenile Canada Goose is starting to look more like the adult.

Goslings

We thought that the Canada goose and gander mated for life and were ideal parents. However, this group of three adults with fourteen goslings has been showing up for about a week.

Goslings and Ducklings

Some geese brought their goslings into our yard today. They left by way of the dock. We've also spotted some ducklings, but none have been very close. We do try to use the dock ourselves. Fortunately, the Canada Geese prefer Molsons to Corona. "Whitey" has been crashing our parties a bit.

Canada Goslings

The goslings are too cute not to photograph. We're glad the swan is still here too.

Mute Swan

Rainy days always seem to bring surprises to Lake Nelson. Today, we glanced out the window and saw a large swan that we later identified as a mute swan. He has been swimming by for a few hours now and got close enough for us to get some photos. He makes the geese look tiny.

Canada Geese Babies

We've been waiting SOOOOO long, all winter in fact for the first goslings. They're here and they're cute. A short video is at http://www.new-jersey-birds.com/Goslings.mov.