Three Canadian geese are on the pond this morning. These are migrators, not the crowd that hang around golf courses and wear out their welcome. They'll be here just today, maybe tomorrow for awhile and will continue their travel north.
When we bought this house four years ago, the pond was a big attraction to us. It's about two and a half acres and has a quarter acre island in the middle. It was created by the contractor who built the Scimitar estate up on the ridge. He quarried the rock under a wet area (all permitted by the state) to build the access road for the Scimitar mansion. What was once swampy is now nicely drained. The pond is home to frogs, herons, beavers and an otter . The waterfowl that you see are migratory, and it's interesting to watch the parade through the calendar months.
Two pair of mallards raise their babies on the far side of the pond. They stay pretty close to the beaver dam and only when it's really quiet do they enter my sight. Wood ducks nest somewhere on the ridge. I see the family throughout the summer. Six babies, then five babies, then four babies... no doubt the otter thins them out. Two of them will likely reach adulthood.
I've only seen a beaver twice. They work at night, I think. You can see bits of alder floating in the water. These are evidence of food gathering.
The first summer of our residence, John placed a floating trampoline mid-way to the island. It needed an anchor to stay put, and that was easily done. The boys enjoyed bouncing on it in the warm months. When the Fall arrived John retrieved it to storage for the next summer.
What should we mark the anchor with? What kind of buoy? I thought a duck decoy would look charming out there, so John went to Ace Hardware and picked out a big plastic Canadian goose. It worked very well through the freezes and thaws of winter into spring.
One April morning a trio of Canadian geese splashed down. I watched them from the kitchen table as they pulled themselves up to the lawn for breakfast. They are herbivores, and find nothing tastier than the grass blends we plant on developed plots. They eat alot of lawn and they... well, you know if you've ever walked around where they hang out. Watch your step!
Back into the water, the trio noticed the buoy sitting still about 50 feet away. Very cautiously, they approached, swimming big circles, then smaller circles. Two of the geese went back to the lawn and the one lingered next to the plastic bird.
She splashed. She nudged. She splashed some more and made a submissive mating posture in front of the stoic figure. She swam slow circles around it for awhile, then joined the other two geese on the lawn. She gazed longingly across the water to her new interest.
At the mid-afternoon, two of the geese took to the air for the next stop on their flight plan. The third bird did not join them. She settled down on the edge of the pond without taking her eyes off the decoy. Once or twice she swam around "him" but did not appear to notice the others had left her.
Early the next morning, she was sitting in the water next to her beau. The pair returned and swam close to the single in greeting. She lowered her head and chased them away. The pair stayed all day, flying up and trying to pursuade the single to budge. She would not.
John came home around 4:00 and I briefed him on the story.
"You'll have to go out there and get that decoy. 'He's' breaking her heart." I said.
John took one of the peddleboats from the dock and did the job, taking the plastic goose and replacing it with a nondescript oblong buoy. The single stood on the island and watched the departure.
She swam to where he'd been moored. And stayed.
About an hour later the pair returned. They approached her again. She faced them, but did not chase.
The pair rose to flight and made a circle around the pond, while the single remained where she'd last seen the decoy.
Another circle around the pond. Then one more.
Suddenly the single flapped her wings. She became airborneand connected her flight with the pair's. The three flew west, out of sight. I have to admit I got a little teary-eyed.
For third consecutive April, the three geese are here. I can't be sure it's the same trio, of course, but I like to think so. I'll enjoy their company as long as they stay today.
They are favorites.
