Hi all, This past June I was in Perch River WMA region and I observed a strange and interesting behavior of Canada goose. So I thought I will share with you all and I would like to know if anyone else has observed similar behavior.
It was chilly morning and there was a pair of Canada Geese ahead of me. I found one of them (I presume probably father), was strangely arching his neck to low level and peering at something under the female (I presume) who was sitting and uttering some calls. I thought may be it has to do with courtship behavior. He would occasionally move his head like snake and look down in that strange fashion. See the picture link below. So I was fascinated and was watching him. Soon it turned out the female lifted her body and I could see some fluffy chicks may be a few days old underneath her. Then she adjusted herself and settled down again. The father kept watching and uttering some noises. Then after sometime of sunning she decided that she can let her babies out. As soon as they were out the male went and touched couple of the chicks with his beak as patting them on their heads and then they all walked into the water. So I was wondering why was he doing that? Was he communicating with the chicks? May be he could see some chicks from his vantage point while I did not see any. Or they were playing pickaboo kind of game? Whatever they were doing it was fascinating to watch. https://www.flickr.com/photos/91426175@N00/20001332614/in/dateposted-public/ DSC_4830_001Perch RWMA Canada Goose peering at its babies that were under the female [https://farm1.staticflickr.com/742/20001332614_0fcc68c124_b.jpg]<https://www.flickr.com/photos/91426175@N00/20001332614/in/dateposted-public/> View photo on Flickr...<https://www.flickr.com/photos/91426175@N00/20001332614/in/dateposted-public/> Meena Haribal Ithaca NY 14850 42.429007,-76.47111 http://www.haribal.org/ http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/ Ithaca area moths: https://plus.google.com/118047473426099383469/posts Dragonfly book sample pages: http://www.haribal.org/dragonflies/samplebook.pdf -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
