Adopted by a Pilgrim Goose

[Miss Lydia]

Hi all and thanks for your comments...much appreciated- I think she was quite clever to pick us but now I'm definitely being biased!!
Wide shot hopefully of her bank...


Our otherwise very suburban street from the road!

I would very much like for her to stay, but I worry that perhaps it would be kinder to arrange for the local Uni (the only place within 10kms I can think of with free range geese around their ponds) to collect her so she can mate. I don't think we'd have much luck catching her ourselves!!
You're right their are actually loads of wood ducks, native hens, cockatoos and even cormorants keeping her company. One pair of ducks even have a dozen new born chicks -too cute!

Looks like a beautiful place to live, looking at the river and your back yard I'd never think you lived suburban. Looks like a really nice place for waterfowl to live, only problem I see would be a pred. going after her and she not being able to fly. Do you have many preds in your area? I know Australia doesn't have preds like we do but you probably have some, I would really investigate letting some one come and take her to a place where their are other geese. Ask what do they do with them when the population needs to be thinned? I think some places here kill them when pop gets too large.

 

[oskardolittle]

Hi Miss Lydia,
I presume from yours and others' comments that Pilgrims/Settlers really can't fly at all...which would explain why she just flaps from time to time.
I think. Generally we should be ok for predators...we have lots of native ducks and hens on the bank, and have (to my knowledge) never had a kill. But that's not to say a disaster could never happen, especially if we ever got new neighbours with poorly controlled dogs/cats. Mind you ALL the neighbours would be very upset if that happened because of the amount of wildlife we have courtesy of the river. It's night here and I can hear her honking from much further downstream...she seems to take to the water at night, which would seem like a sensible safety precaution. But she now seems to spend all day on our bank and comes up to greet me whenever I go down to the bank. Yesterday she came to within a metre of me to say hello, and I realised she has bright blue eyes, which I thought were only males in Pilgrims, so she must be a bit of a cross breed (or perhaps not a pilgrim at all). I'm thinking if we can get a definite on a sex, and she stays for more than just the spring, it might be nice to get a friend for her. Not sure I'd want a breeding pair as I would worry about goslings...we do have occasionally sea eagles and kytes (small local eagle) which couldn't pick off an adult goose but would definitely be interested in goslings. (And I think the local council might be upset if we ended up populating the main river for the city with geese!)
Is another female goose enough to keep her company? How much lawn would we need approximately to feed 2 adult geese? (There's a whole other lawn about half as big again about 3meters higher up the bank, not to mention the neighbours' lawn) and she's doing a brilliant job keeping the lawn down there nicely mowed...especially coming into spring.

 

[livininbrazil]

Sounds like you´ve been bitten! Glad you´re thinking about keeping her, and even moreso that you´re considering getting her a friend. 2 females should do fine together. They may go through mating activity in the absense of a male, but no fertile eggs of course. The geese would have plenty of space there. From the pic I would guess she´s a she, just because of her carriage. More pics possible for a better guess? She has a lot of white on her face, which would account for the blue eyes. Quite possibly a cross, I have some saddle-back females here with blue eyes, but she´s so pretty.
At the risk of boring you: You´ve probably already researched it, but all these similar breeds of goose come from the greylag. From what I´ve researched, the breeds that have the white colourations (and blue eyes) are descended from the European/eastern side of the northern hemisphere. And those greylags in turn have the genes for orangey-pink bills as in the pilgrim, called anser anser, or pink bills as in the cotton patch, those are called anser rubrirostris (I don´t claim to understand genetics in geese, it´s just what I´ve read) So, when we have a "mixed-breed" it´s really still within the same species anyway. Well, that´s how breeds are developed. Your goose likely has european origins and look how far she´s come! I find it fascinating. Sometimes I see unlikey breeds here in Brazil, and I think, what´s the story behind you, then?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sounds like you´ve been bitten! Glad you´re thinking about keeping her, and even moreso that you´re considering getting her a friend. 2 females should do fine together. They may go through mating activity in the absense of a male, but no fertile eggs of course. The geese would have plenty of space there. From the pic I would guess she´s a she, just because of her carriage. More pics possible for a better guess? She has a lot of white on her face, which would account for the blue eyes. Quite possibly a cross, I have some saddle-back females here with blue eyes, but she´s so pretty.
At the risk of boring you: You´ve probably already researched it, but all these similar breeds of goose come from the greylag. From what I´ve researched, the breeds that have the white colourations (and blue eyes) are descended from the European/eastern side of the northern hemisphere. And those greylags in turn have the genes for orangey-pink bills as in the pilgrim, called anser anser, or pink bills as in the cotton patch, those are called anser rubrirostris (I don´t claim to understand genetics in geese, it´s just what I´ve read) So, when we have a "mixed-breed" it´s really still within the same species anyway. Well, that´s how breeds are developed. Your goose likely has european origins and look how far she´s come! I find it fascinating. Sometimes I see unlikey breeds here in Brazil, and I think, what´s the story behind you, then?

Very interesting livin, and she may well be a mix and very pretty too, I agree the way she stands makes me think female and those blue eyes, my Embden has them and I just love the color. As for space I'd say yours and neighbors property could take 2 geese mowing the lawn. And you can sit out in the chaise lounge and supervise.

 

[livininbrazil]

Haha, I like it, chaise longe....I wouldn´t do it here, it´d be covered in dogs and chickens! But it sounds a lovely idea for the Dolittle Ranch! Right setting. But there´s a challenge...you´d have to find another extremely good-looking goose to go with it all! I just have a block of wood under a tree to oversee the very funny goings-on. Today the weather was right for thousands upon thousands of termites to take wing. The chickens and the muscovies had a party!!!! You´ll have fun with your geese, too, Oskar. Today my 3-wk-old had access to "grown-ups" water....had a wonderful time doing back-flips and mad-movies-style scuba-diving etc. And then the parents joined in, another party! I got a bit wet! Great stuff.

 

[livininbrazil]

Hi Miss Lydia,
I presume from yours and others' comments that Pilgrims/Settlers really can't fly at all...which would explain why she just flaps from time to time.
I think. Generally we should be ok for predators...we have lots of native ducks and hens on the bank, and have (to my knowledge) never had a kill. But that's not to say a disaster could never happen, especially if we ever got new neighbours with poorly controlled dogs/cats. Mind you ALL the neighbours would be very upset if that happened because of the amount of wildlife we have courtesy of the river. It's night here and I can hear her honking from much further downstream...she seems to take to the water at night, which would seem like a sensible safety precaution. But she now seems to spend all day on our bank and comes up to greet me whenever I go down to the bank. Yesterday she came to within a metre of me to say hello, and I realised she has bright blue eyes, which I thought were only males in Pilgrims, so she must be a bit of a cross breed (or perhaps not a pilgrim at all). I'm thinking if we can get a definite on a sex, and she stays for more than just the spring, it might be nice to get a friend for her. Not sure I'd want a breeding pair as I would worry about goslings...we do have occasionally sea eagles and kytes (small local eagle) which couldn't pick off an adult goose but would definitely be interested in goslings. (And I think the local council might be upset if we ended up populating the main river for the city with geese!)
Is another female goose enough to keep her company? How much lawn would we need approximately to feed 2 adult geese? (There's a whole other lawn about half as big again about 3meters higher up the bank, not to mention the neighbours' lawn) and she's doing a brilliant job keeping the lawn down there nicely mowed...especially coming into spring.

Hi Oskar. What´s the latest about the goose? Do you still have her? If so, is she quite content on her own, or did you find a friend for her?