late spring at the lake

late spring at the lake --

ten gray goslings all in a row 

play follow the leader

On a walk around Bonnefield Lake, I'm enjoying the fantastic fragrance and seductive white blossoms of black locust trees when I surprise some Canada geese browsing on the freshly mowed grass on the path. The town has attempted to keep the geese from nesting at the lake by draping lines along the shore, on the theory that the geese won't cross the lines to get to the water. Obviously didn't work.

Two families, one with five goslings, the other with ten! The fuzzy gray goslings have golden heads and stubby wings and tails, while the parents sport elegant black caps with white chin straps and long wings and tail feathers. The goslings are too young to fly but the fully feathered parents are not going to leave them, so they all walk as quickly as they can on webbed feet designed for swimming, through the tall grass along the shore and into the safety of the water. 

At first the two groups seem to be headed in different directions.

In the water, one of the parents with the biggest family takes the lead and the other brings up the rear, while the goslings line up in a row in between.

Both groups head for the end of the lake, where a brush-free gravel embankment above a culvert makes a nice gangway from water to land. One gander keeps a lookout while the others climb up.

Now that they're on the gravel path that's part of the longer loop trail, one couple seems undecided about what to do.

Just then a man on a bike whizzes by. Oh no, back to the water! So down the ramp they hustle again.

They swim back to the other side of the lake, and I continue the long way around, where I surprise them again, grazing on the path, and send them hurrying once more back into the water. Brrr! Must be cold!