Indeed, since Mr. Digat decided to do his work from home, he goes to the banks of the river, and takes pictures of wildlife with his camera. It was there that he discovered geese. Every night I walked along the shore looking for beavers. Naturally, there were also lots of geese coming from the south to search for nesting sites,” Digout said. It was definitely interesting to see the geese competing for nesting sites and protecting their nests.
In May, Mr. Digout observed that the first geese are hatching”. They are very beautiful when they are very young. They look like little tennis balls with legs,” Digout says. I then started taking photos of the Chickadees while waiting for the beavers to appear.
One evening, as Digout sat in the reeds by the river, he saw a mother goose and a group of unusually large parakeets. One by one they began to sleep, curled up under their feathers, until they were 16.
„I was surprised that this mom had 16 babies and I started going there every day to look for this mom and her fur babies.“ Digot says. And every day she seemed to have a larger group.
This is called group cleaning and is common in cities and towns where there are many nests.
Grouped nests are created by one parent caring for the other geese’s young and letting its partner rest for a few days.
Digout reckons this mother goose is clearly suited to the task. I’m amazed at how calm she is when there are so many geese around her,” says Digout. “It’s as if she were a patient mother”. The chicks grow so fast that they no longer all fit under their mother. Now they sleep in a big heap and she watches over them. The young geese have since separated into three major families, but the supermother and her partner are still keeping busy. And they keep protecting them until it’s time for them to head back south.
