Count of Goslings Confirmed
Posted: 7 May 2022
After discovering that the geese had hatched their young on Thursday, today I managed to take more photos and confirm how many goslings there are.
But while walking around the grounds to get to the geese I encountered a lone swan. Whilst I optimistically reported that we had a pair of swans in the lake on 28 April, the pen disappeared that night and hasn't yet returned. Once again, there is doubt that we will have swans nesting on the lake this year.
Moving further round the lake I encountered the geese on the bank. As soon as I came into view the adults hurried their youngsters into the water. From my point of view that was a good thing as there tends to be a better opportunity to get the birds to spread out a little and that allows you to count the goslings more easily.
So, there you have it eight youngsters! How long that number will survive is another question. We've never had more than one last to the point where they fly away in September. That was our first year here. In our early years we used to restrict the number that would hatch. Once the swans began to nest on the island they would see off the geese. Normally, the adult geese would abandon the site within two or three weeks after all their young disappeared. While we have never witnessed a killing, but there is no other explanation for the rapid depletion of numbers.
