Thank goodness the month of May is in the rear view mirror, though June didn’t begin all that great either. I had some computer issues at work Wednesday and Thursday thanks to Comcast (I was blacklisted at the work site and could not gain access to my desktop). Compounding the problem, was the fact that my boss was going out of town for a week, necessitating a mad scramble on Friday to get all my work and our June invoices done before his departure. Saturday, June 1st dawned hot and humid, and the spike in the heat made conditions perfect for a volatile storm. Here in SE Michigan, we had two severe storms yesterday, the first at 3:00 p.m. caused my power to go out for almost four hours. When I finally hopped online to try to catch up with what was going on in the outside world (and here at WordPress), storm #2 began slowly rumbling and making its presence known. I stayed online a while watching Tweets from the weather bureau and local meteorologists about the storm’s approach to our area. Finally I just shut the computer off and went to bed. I did get out to walk today, but didn’t take any pictures. The photos in this blog post are from Friday and Saturday.
There was some serious goose-steppin’ going on.
I like walking in the morning because it is peaceful and quiet at the Park and there are more critters out and about. The geese and their goslings are no exception. I love seeing the goslings following after their parents, toddling along, whether it is to the next patch of grass to graze in, across the perimeter path or down the embankment to the Ecorse Creek.
The grass is very long at Council Point Park right now. Normally, the grass-cutting service arrives every Monday morning, right around the time I am ready to leave for home. But, the cutters are way off schedule due to the incessant rain and stormy weather. They haven’t been around in awhile and meanwhile the grass has gone to seed as have the dandelions. The goslings, just like their parents, have been gorging themselves on the tender long grass and a few times I saw the goslings just laying down and nibbling on the grass rather than standing up to graze. I was hard pressed to take a picture when the geese weren’t grazing or preening themselves, thus I ended up with a ton of photos from the last few days. I sifted through about 150 pictures that I took over Friday and Saturday … admittedly I had a tough time winnowing down the photos for this post. I tried to ensure they did not all look alike and to capture some of their antics as well.
Wait until you see how much our fuzzy babies have grown … but wait! Now there is a fourth family and those goslings are still at the yellow, cute-and-fuzzy-ball-of-fluff stage. I discovered the fourth family on Friday, and, in the six years that I’ve been walking at this venue, usually the three or four families of geese spread out around the Park, and do not necessarily congregate together. But, on the two days, when these pictures were taken, all four families were hanging out together – it was a geese and gosling convention! I tried to get a shot of the entire group, but it was impossible.
I took some photos of the geese and their offspring along the perimeter path and these shots will give you an idea of the stages of growth. Note in the larger goslings how their adult plumage colors and feathers have started to emerge, mostly on their backs and tail feathers. It was warm yesterday and many of the goslings, just plopped down, some in the middle of the path, some along the edge. At a glance, you may think the goslings all look alike, but they are various colors and sizes.
Of course, we walkers always have to do a detour around the goslings, or their parents will hiss or flap their wings until we humans obey and follow the proper protocol! It’s no big deal to walk around them and on the grass, but sometimes walkers don’t do that thus raising the hackles of the parents.
Yesterday morning, since it was a weekend, I could take my time watching the families and taking pictures, whereas on Friday, I had one eye on the goslings and the other eye on my watch, since it was a work day. I was a respectable distance away, so as not to anger the gander who stands like a sentry guarding his family (except for when he is bending that slender neck to the ground to grab up grass with that long beak). So I was immersed in the beauty of the geese gathering, when all of a sudden, a person walking a big black dog came along and the families all scattered down to the Creek and into the water post haste. This was one family and some stragglers headed for safety.
Actually, dogs are not permitted in this Park, but that law is not enforced. The appearance of the pooch on the perimeter path caused the gaggle to head to a part of the Creek where the brush and high reeds make it difficult to get a clear view of the water, but I did my best to take pictures anyway.
Down at the ol’ swimmin’ hole.
Once again, capturing the images of a contingent of four geese families was a challenge, so I had to limit myself to just a few parents and/or offspring at a time. And, I want to mention, that often geese are very loud – they honk as they descend from the sky to the grassy areas, or when they splash down on the water … even when they are conversing with one another in the Park. But these last two days, they were very quiet, whether grazing (yup, I guess their mouths are full) or swimming along in the water. The peace and tranquility of them swimming was amazing to me – no one made a peep, as they followed the leaders.
Here are some pictures of the geese and goslings in the water.
I suspect there will be a few more geese family posts, but I have taken a lot of other Park critter pictures recently and will be sharing them in the coming week.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Great photos!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Kate – it is so sweet seeing them running after their parents to keep up. They flap their tiny wings, and some of them look like they are just big feet.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your goslings are so cute! They sure are growing up quickly! Great photos with your new camera, Linda! 👍
LikeLiked by 2 people
They sure are big Sabine … it is nice to see the different families with different stages of growth and hopefully you can see that in the pictures as much as seeing them at the Park.
The earliest family of goslings born are huge and getting adult characteristics including attitudes. Glad you liked the photos – I have a lot of pictures that I’ve taken recently and have separated them out for future posts.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I love them- though they do not look so attractive now, there will come a time when they stand tall like their parents and shoo humans away from their children.
I am glad the grass and dandelions are still there for them to gorge and even keep quiet.
Hope your computer is working again.
Hoping for good June weather for you.
Susie
LikeLiked by 2 people
Well, I did a comment and got a WP error and it flew off the screen.] Yes, they are not so cute now Susie and growing up fast and gangly except for the new goslings who are still cute and fuzzy. They have plenty of food to eat right now and that is helping them to grow up tall as well as long – their bodies look almost as big as the parents’ bodies and those feet – big, wide feet! I think the computer at work is 100% fine now, even the weather is good for the next few days. Hope both things continue at the status quo … I am frustrated with all of it (including where my original comment went and it is in cyberspace somewhere between your house and mine).
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am a morning person too, Linda. I like running early in the morning, especially in the summer. Less traffic and cooler. If I wait too late, I have to dodge cars and the humidity is much worse.
Those goslings are so cute, and it’s amazing that they are at different stages of development. So funny that the little ones couldn’t even stand up to eat! Their parents will have to teach them some manners!
LikeLiked by 2 people
They grow in leaps and bounds Laurie – the one gosling on the pathway is almost as large as its parent. Most of them are in an awkward gangly stage and remind me of me as a teenager. I liked the goslings just laying there and nibbling grass like it wears them out to eat, but when Mama and Papa say let’s go, they spring into action, flipping their wings in the air and running to keep up. I like the early morning … no critters later on and I like the peace and tranquility, birds singing, and a perfect way to start the morning off. We have a very chilly morning now … 46 degrees, but that’s fine with me … when I was at the Park Saturday morning, same time it was in the 70s and very sticky due to high humidity. I am lucky getting my power back so quickly, there are still 1,500 customers without power (there were 40,000 outages all together).
LikeLiked by 1 person
When I went birding regularly, I found that early morning was the best time to go if I wanted to see the birds. Glad you got your power back quickly. We don’t have a generator and we get our water from a well, so if we lose power we have no water either!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, there is nothing like walking through the Park and hearing the birds – we have an Oriole down there and I Googled to hear its birdsong so I can see it. It flitted by me last week and someone mentioned seeing it. I was lucky as some folks still do not have their power back, over 48 hours later. They said 32,000 people had no power – it was confirmed to be 40,00 today. That’s really rough – a generator is nice but the instant-on ones are so costly, even for a small home ($5,000.00 plus).
LikeLike
What an awful day! It is so frustrating when technology doesn’t work! I can’t believe how big the goslings are getting! I have been on a stay at home vacation (visit from my mother) for 10 days so I haven’t been to the metro parks. Back at it tomorrow. I don’t think I will ever get caught up on my messages on WP!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, it was frustrating and I got behind here and with others on social media, and I had intended to forego a post on Saturday to catch up here on WordPress and with them and then we had the power outage. Then more storms. Very frustrating. I am still about a day and a half behind and hopefully will catch up tonight – no storms til Wednesday now. Hope you had a nice visit with your mom for your monumental birthday. 🙂 (I said it here and not on your blog). When you return to the metro parks today you’ll see how big your goslings got too! I did tell the world when I turned 60 – don’t know if I’ll do that at age 63 though. https://lindaschaubblog.net/2016/04/14/the-ultimate-throwback-thursday/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Age never bothered me. I never cared if anyone knew how old I am. They get what they see…lol
LikeLiked by 1 person
I feel like that too Diane – can’t turn back the hands of time! (Even if we wanted to and I’m not so sure I would want to be a young person these days – we had it easier, if not better, in my opinion … it is a whole new world and sometimes it moves too fast for my liking.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those gosling’s are doing well. Our 1st days of June has started well with a sunny weekend here in the UK lots of pictures to download to laptop but my charger has broken so waiting for a replacement so it is technology stop play rather than the weather! Glad l can follow some posts on a tablet.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aren’t they big Andy? Especially that one shot where it is just the parent and a very large gosling on the pathway, the gosling is almost the size of the parent. I was happy to see the newest family, with still-fuzzy and yellow goslings. That is late for them to be that young – they are usually out of here by mid-June, latest. Hope you do not have the heat wave in the UK that you suffered through last year. Our volatile weather is not the norm, though it’s the second year for the intense and never-ending torrential rain and stormy weather, so they are attributing it to climate change. I fear it will only get worse. I got behind at WordPress with the computer issues at work, then the power outage and stormy weather. I don’t like to use the laptop in stormy weather, and I don’t have a smart phone to access by internet that way. I hate that we depend on technology so much and I am probably one of the few people who have never used a tablet!
LikeLike
Yes they are they grow quickly
LikeLiked by 1 person
I give you two thumbs up for what you chose from the approximate 150!
Perfect amount here and good variety – and I oooo’d and ahhhhh’d
One of the pics felt swan like – and some of the different lights and looks!
Whew – nice photo shoot –
And glad they had a quiet couple of days to eat and eat – The ones one our area can be loud too – thanks for the smile tonight – long weekend and off to bed – oh and the very first photo is my fav and looks like it can be used for a modern version book cover for the book “make way for ducklings”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Glad you liked the post and pictures Yvette – I had a hard time picking what header picture to use … kept going through all of them, do I include one big family, or just the goslings and I am like you and like all of them trailing behind the parent like the Pied Piper. It is very cute to see them, especially the youngest ones. The larger ones are getting big for their britches with some attitude going on, like staring at you, and occasionally hissing, following their parents’ antics. But that’s okay … you just step back and don’t get in their space and you are fine and can still admire them and take pictures. I have more critter pics to share, hopefully this week, then it’s off to explore with hopefully better weather, less sogginess at the other Parks (mine stays dry all the time as the path is a little higher than the grounds) as we try to get into a more Summer-like feel in these parts of SE Michigan.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well cheers to June in your area – here in VA we have Zone 7 weather and so summer is a little more underway – I might have shared that already – and I actually had to not journal outside last week because it was so hot – hmmm
But looking forward to a beautiful summer 2019
LikeLiked by 2 people
I hope a more normal late Spring is here to stay. We didn’t have a lot of snow this past Winter (not like the Winter of 2017-2018 and 62 inches of the white stuff) and I thought RVA had more incidents of snow than us this past Winter.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It’s amazing how many little gooselings are hatched in one “family.” I would think that there would be a tremendous geese overpopulation. They are awfully cute, though. I look forward to watching them grow up… when do they start to develop the black head feathers?
LikeLiked by 2 people
I know some of the families over the years have been really large and so far this year I had only seen three families (two with five goslings and one with three goslings) so I don’ know where all the extra ones came from – they were everywhere the other day, so there must have been more families. The babies usually can fly by 10 weeks and they will have their adult plumage by then. Some of their tail feathers and darker feathers were coming in on the older goslings already. They sure were not as cute as they were a few weeks ago when they looked yellow and fuzzy and they are full of “attitude” as well if you get too close. They can’t do much wing flapping with the tiny wings, but they stare at you and hiss. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s a lot of fuzzy cuteness going on in these photos! It’s neat to see them in all the different stages.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, they sure are cute and amazing to see how fast they grow when comparing them in these pictures. I think there might be more families than the four as they were everywhere … this morning I was at this Park and did not see a single goose!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Miss Linda…………………………we have only one family of geese who had six goslings…………………………..here at our pond……………….I was surprised to see that there were other geese following behind them wherever they went………so your pictures of the families that were combined surprises me too…………………………I never realized that they did that…………………our ducks always stay near the family of geese……………………we do have our GBH……………………………and for the first time this warmer season I’ve noticed the white Ibis here too…………………………….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Are your goslings getting big Ann Marie? We have to have more than four families and like you, I have never seen combined families before. I am going to ask the DNR about it and have a few other questions for them as well about some different things I’ve seen at the Park lately. They are always helpful in answering questions so I will write them a message this week. I find it odd that they’d grouo together. That one picture did not do the scene justice – there must have been 50-60 geese/goslings grouped together. It was an incredible sight and a first for me. I’ve not seen an ibis at Council Point Park, but at Lake Erie Metropark I have. I have not been there due to all the extreme flooding they say is at the Lake Erie shoreline. And, I’m still hunting for ducklings which are surely grown up by now.
LikeLike
I’m surprised by how many are in a family – no wonder there are so many of them around. Love the swimming photos.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve never seen them in large groups like that in the six years that I have been walking at this venue. I wonder if there is a reason, like a predator was around? Last year we had a small family of coyotes in the Park and in the neighborhoods, but I think they have moved on. They had one pup and the parents in the Park and they were in the next block from my house according to the online Facebook crime forum. I saw a coyote running down the street when I was walking last Fall. They are all different sizes – sometimes it is hard to tell at a glance, but in a group, you can see their sizes and plumage colors.
LikeLiked by 1 person
In all my years of living in the country I have never seen a coyote – it must have been a strange sight!
LikeLike
I did a double-take when he ran past me Joni. I included a photo of him in this blog post … it is not all that clear as I had already put the camera away and was headed home through the neighborhood when he streaked past me – OMG. I was on Emmons Boulevard, a very nice street in the next city over, and they do a great job with their harvest and Halloween decor and it was a pretty day so I was taking pictures for upcoming posts. My pic is far away but if you keep scrolling down, you’ll see what someone posted, up close, in the crime forum … the coyotes went to live at Council Point Park and had a pup with them … I never saw them at the Park on my walks but other walkers did, at night as well … remember it was darker in the a.m. and early p.m. by then so likely they were roaming about more. I have not seen them, nor has anyone else seen them at the Park since last Fall.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes I do remember reading about that Linda!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wasn’t sure how long you’d been following me – I knew from December at least. She got a much better picture than I did.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh my they’ve seriously grown….!
I love them as babies, not so much (not at all) when they grow older. I now know that these are canadian goose (what makes them canadian?) Whenever I’m in the park with others we look at the sign showing which ducks are in the park, with the images of them.
It’ll be fun for you to watch them growing (and the robins).
Love, light and glitter
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Eliza – yes, they are growing fast and check out their darker/white plumage near the tail – they are gangly looking and look like we did as teenagers, in that awkward all arms and legs stage (at least for me … maybe you were a petite young thing!!). Some are still young though. I am going to look later and find a fellow blogger’s post about the Canada Geese … Andy lives in the UK and I can’t off the top of my head recall where he lives, but it is near Titchfield Nature Preserve as he visits there every day to take pictures (waterfowl mostly). He did a post about the Canada Geese recently and saw goslings – we are comparing notes on the sizes of the offspring. 🙂 I am bummed to have missed the fledging of the baby robins and have to write about it – too many distractions with the computer issues, weather, power outage and I have a collection of fun photos to share here but I want to catch up on Reader as I’m behind about a day and half. I tried last night to catch up a little – I think you have some posts in there too. Although I missed the robin babies I do have some other robin pictures … I could make it an “all bird” post. And I have a new squirrel pal too to write about.
Love, light and glitter to you as well on this Tuesday.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’ve a new squirrel pal? I’m looking forward to meeting him….
You definitely could make an all birds post 🙂
Hope you have a happy day today
I’ll have loads to catch up on in reader soon (heading away) but to be honest, most the blogs I follow rarely post.
((hugs))
LikeLiked by 1 person
I left shortly after I wrote you. I intended to drive to Heritage Park … still looking for those ducklings … and to give the car a little run as it was a beautiful morning. But there is so much construction everywhere I figured why deal with the hassle, so went to my regular Park and got more walking in that way too. This little squirrel has tufted ears – our other squirrels don’t. So I don’t know where he came from but he is a little unusual looking but also looks like a Fox squirrel (like all the other brown squirrels). The first time he was apprehensive and gave me a wary look – the next time he came over to see me … realized I was not going to make “squirrel pie” out of him. 🙂 I think I could make an all-birds post as well. It was a beautiful day today – stormy tomorrow … no words for this weather. I have caught up in Reader and e-mail as of an hour ago. I hope to write a post, but not tonight … too late now to start one … and with tomorrow’s dicey weather, likely not tomorrow either … I was going to test drive the new Windows 10 laptop tomorrow. (((hugs to you Eliza)))
LikeLike
Eliza – I did not want to forget to tell you (because I forgot last night) .. I looked through Andy’s site and he did not have Canada Geese pics, but he and I had spoken about his versus ours as to the goslings size, etc. – no pictures, I searched his site. We are having a crummy weather day and logging off as it is storming now but didn’t want you to think I forgot.
LikeLike
Pingback: Among the Branches | Daily Inkling – Normal Happenings
Oh my gosh! They are growing up so fast!!! They are still as cute as can be ❤ I’m obsessed with all these pics of the gosling!
LikeLike
Mackenzie – you will be happy to know I got more pictures yesterday. Got there early – no goslings or geese except up in the air in V-formation. Looked for the Park geese, and they were all in the water. But they came out after their swim for a post-swim bite to eat … they were all there. I have two very sweet pictures to use for Father’s Day – you will love them. They are my favorites to date of the goslings … the tenderness of the parent looking at the baby just melts your heart.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yay!! Cannot wait to see them! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh how sweet with the four families together for the geese and goosling convention 😆. What a beautiful post ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad you liked it Zena – it is a beautiful sight to see all those geese and their offspring assembled in one place and so nice to see the little ones toddling after their parents. 🙂
LikeLike