Sunday Evening Reflection: On the Move

Posted byRebecca BuddPosted inCanadian Goose, LadyBudd, Mother's Day, Sunday Evening Reflection, VancouverTags:, , , ,
Celebrating Mother’s Day with the Family

I celebrated Mother’s Day with a family of Geese. The goslings have arrived and have joined their parents on the Vancouver Seawall. The Seawall is separated into a pedestrian walkway and a bike lane. The Geese “gaggle” community believes that they have the right-of-way on both, but they seem to prefer the bikes lanes.

My thanks to the Geese family for allowing me to video their families. The video is named “A Family on the Move” but I think “The Geese Walk” is more fitting.

First come the scouts to survey the possible route. Then the family groups follow, with the chicks eating voraciously and one playing a frantic catchup. There are so many stories in this migration. Thank you for sharing this moment!

“A goose flies by a chart which the Royal Geographical Society could not mend.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Published by Rebecca Budd

Blogger, Visual Storyteller, Podcaster, Traveler and Life-long Learner

29 thoughts on “Sunday Evening Reflection: On the Move”

    1. Aren’t they the best! They have a mind of their own, and there is always one that will be an outlier! I always smile when the bikers round a corner and have to break for the family to cross. Hugs coming your way.

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    1. Thank you! A few months ago, I was looking for a way to include music in my videos without contravening copyright issues. Musicians, like other creators, need to be recognized for their work. So I found Epidemic Sound. For a nominal monthly fee, I am able to use their music on my social media venues under a “creator license.” There are so many wonderful musicians/vocalists and it is my way of saying thank you to people who share their talents.

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    1. There are so many stories. The little fellow that was playing catchup was always straying away from the family. The mother called and called for him/her to follow. The chick (I think that the term is gosling) wanted to go into the water, and everyone else wanted to go into “greener” pastures. When he/she discovered that the flock (aka gaggle) was moving on, there was a mad scramble to catch up. It was an cliffhanger!! But all came together as it should.

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  4. Absolutely delightful! And the music selection was perfect. I’ll try to remember this charming video when dodging all their ‘droppings’ due to overpopulation along our lakefront park. I guess we’ve provided too nice an environment for them 😉

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    1. I know exactly what you mean. A couple of years back, I spoke to the head gardener of the Granville Island parkway. She had recently taken a course on how to call the goose flocks (gaggles). There are strict protocols in how this is done. But what is remarkable is that the geese learn. For example, as I understand the rules, you cannot cull any flock on private land, only on city/public property. So what do geese do, you may ask?!! They lay their eggs on private property and then stroll out with their chicks into city/public property. They remember the “cullers.” One culler who worked in Vancouver centre went to work in another area further up the valley. When she showed up, all the geese started to make loud noises and fled her presence. We share this planet with amazing creatures, who are much “smarter” than we think. It is humanity’s hubris.

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    1. I am fascinated by their society. They have a unique way of parenting, which I watched unfolding. The young parents allow older, more mature parents to take their care of their children. So when I seen a family, there are different sizes of goslings depending upon the various parents that still are in the gaggle, but defer to the older, seemingly wise, parents. Hugs!

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    1. I was amazed by how much Geese Families have in common with Human Families. I remember being taught that most animals went on instinct alone. Now that we know better, we connect better!

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  7. I really like your video, the geese are charming! I see they know how and observe self distancing. Better, I might add that most of the humans in the video. I love the little goslings and am so happy the one who had to catch up was able to find her brothers and sisters. Another good quote from Mr. Holmes.

    I just enjoyed this again today, love the little ones running along with mom–one of them made the mistake of staying behind, it is good he found the way to his family.

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    1. I am delighted that you enjoyed the video. I have been following the Geese family these past few weeks and I’m amazed how fast the goslings grow. This little one playing catch-up has always been the bravest of all. Even the other geese try to keep track of him/her. It is a drama unfolding.

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  8. Got to love them and they are amazing birds. I’d love to know what they’re thinking as they stroll about. I guess that birds that can fly hundreds of miles are not going to be troubled by rights of way though. Love the music. Totally matches them

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    1. I always hold my breath when the families decide that the bike lanes are really geese lanes. The bikers scramble especially when they round a corner and see a family gathering. The interesting part about the families is that there is a collective understanding of how the community takes care of the goslings. They keep ever watchful and their hissing can be heard from a far distance.

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      1. Birds and animals and their young are something to see. And anyone who thinks they don’t have emotions really needs to think again. We’ve a long term family of squirrels here who has got the entire street fooled into thinking they belong ‘specifically’ to you. One day proud daddy who is prob a granddaddy by now, waited for ages on one of our fence posts. I wondered why then I saw the baby come along a wall, prob on a first outing and the daddy was clearly showing it round, where to get the grub in each garden. As for the ‘geese lanes’? Where we now live is actually much less rural than where we lived before which was on fields, but it is a conservation area. So there’s this spaghetti type junction that is semi bordered by fields maybe about five mins away by car. One day my Mr. was crossing one of the many bits of it on foot and here was this fox and it knew all the bits to wait for the green man at, better than him.

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