You k)Ve ’em ... feed ’em ...
provide a home... give your affec
tion ... and your time... then they
pick up and just leave, with barely
a goodbye.
No, no, not the lads. The geese.
With each successive year of
nestlings, our Canada goose fami
lies seem to become more tame.
Admittedly, I have some concern
about that, since harm to them is
most likely to come from that of
the human-sourced sort.
Still, when you walk to -the
pond to see the newly-hatched
babies, and the parents come
proudly paddling in your direction
to show off their offspring, it’s
tough to ignore them and turn
away. Thus, once again, we had
feathered moochers eager to
gobble up our offerings.
For the first time ever, two fam
ilies shared the pond area, one
with four goslings and one pair
with two infants. Terribly .territor
ial, our prior goose parents had
always chased off any other pre
tenders to their area.
These two families at least
tolerated one another, although
the dominant pair inevitably
chased off the other family if they
came too close when we were
feeding them.
So, the Farmer would feed one
family from one comer of the pier
and I’d feed the other from the
other corner. If you tried to feed
©The
Power
Behlhd
Envlronmentel
Control
101 Cow Tie Stall Barn—Fleetwood, PA
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them yourself, you had to alternate
tossing feed in two directions
and that usually still didn’t work
thus creating regular minor
squabbles.
In a mere two months, the dow
ny goslings that hatched out the
first week of May had grown to
adult size and feathering. We
marveled again at how they
change literally from day to
day. First, tiny feathers begin to
poke out and cover their down,
then succeedingly larger ones, as
wing and tail growth took place.
As their dull-beige-colored,
peach-fuzzy coats grew sleeker,
the adult coloring also came in.
And, while the goslings still bad
their infant voices when they were
nearly full-grown, a sort of
pceping-chirping combination,
their necks turned a glossy black,
they developed the classic white
mask on their faces and long,
shiny tail feathers covered the
pristine white patch on their
rumps.
All in a mere eight weeks. To
grow so quickly, they spent most
of each day poking around for tas
ty tidbits in the pond floor and
among the water plants, grazing
for tender grass shoots around the
p6nd, or pulling up the tender
shoots of oats and alfalfa planted
this spring in the field next to the
pond.
During those
almost-rare times
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Dairy Princess Covers Two Counties
Northampton/Lehlgh County Dairy Princess Jennifer Harris Is congratulated by her
mother, Renee Harris, and her grandparents, Ramona and Orrln Fink.
GERMANSTOWN (Lehigh
Co.) Northampton and Lehigh
County Dairy Princess Jennifer
Harris was crowned recently by
the former county princess Shan
non Semmel.
Jennifer is the daughter of
Renee Harris of Germansville and
Lynn Harris of New York. Jennifer
owns 13 Jerseys and is a member
when they weren’t eating, the
geese lounged on the grass along
the edge of the pond, sliding off
into the safety of the water at any
hint of danger. Apparent returnees
from previous years who remem
bered the “system,” the parent
couples promptly led their babies
into the water when we’d show up
at the pond in late evening.
A simple “C’mon guys”
brought them out of the cover of
the weeds and tall grass on the dis
tant side of the pond. But they
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of the Lehigh County Dairy 4-H
Club.
This fall, Jennifer will be a
senior at Northwestem-Lehigh
High School.
Jennifer also volunteers at
Lehigh Valley Hospital, is a mem
ber of Teen Council, baby sitting
exchange, and the Medical Explor
er Post at the Sacred Heart
Hospital.
would only respond to my voice.
If anyone was at the pond when I
wasn’t, the geese kept their
distance.
The dominant female was
always the most tame of them all,
and would eat from my hand,
gently removing the food. And
though I tried to not feed any of
the babies that way, a few of the
more aggressive ones quickly
caught on. They were far less
dainty eaters than their mothers
and prescribed to that cliche about
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 27, 1996-B5
Assisting Jennifer in dairy
promotion for the two counties are
five dairy maids; Stacey Dietrich,
Germansville; Katie Harwick,
Kempton; Liz Wisser, New Tri
poli; and Amanda and Rebecca
Klein, Easton.
Contact person for scheduling
the dairy princesses and dairy
maids for promotions is Andrea
Semmel (610) 799-3489.
“biting the hand that feeds you.”
Geese can inflict pain. Trust
me. I finally kept my fingers out
of the “kids’” reach due to the
pinch factor.
When we last saw our goose
families, they were stretching and
testing those long flight feathers,
gearing up for that first burst of
freedom into the air. And while
we were away for a few days, the
geese took wing and disappeared.
The pond seems empty and lonely.
G’bye guys. And good luck.
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