Canadian Geese on a Friesland Lake

Millions of people the world over identify themselves as bird watchers. I certainly enjoyed bird watching while on board the steel hulled Dutch boat we rented to cruise the lakes and canals of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. Friesland and the neighboring area of Overijssel are known for their wetlands and for many species of geese that over-winter there. There are eight varieties known to the area and the family I spotted is not among them. No, I spotted a mated pair of Canadian geese and their eleven fuzzy goslings.

As I settled into my morning mug of hot tea on the fly bridge of our boat I watched the frustrated mom and dad geese take turns hopping from the water up to the top of the breakwater, a distance of about two feet, obviously trying to teach the goslings how to exit the lake. Once on the wooden beam the parent goose would honk as if to say, “You see, just like that.” Eleven earnest babies were paddling franticly trying to do as they were instructed, to no avail. “They are too tiny today,” I mused, “But next week one of them may shock the whole family by actually hopping out.”

This feathered brood is no casual family unit, in fact they are apt to stay together for at least a year until they return together to this breeding ground where the young will seek to mate and start their own families. Faithful to the end they are known to mate for life and can live as long as thirty years.

Being from North America this avian family looked very familiar to me. However, seeing them in Europe was disorienting so I determined it must be a Scandinavian branch of the Canadian goose family. My research has proven I was wrong, the Canadian goose is known to have arrived in Europe naturally because of its outstanding capabilities. They migrate as many as 2,500 miles per season or 5,000 miles per year. Their usual migration altitude is 3,000 feet but they have been observed as high as 29,000 feet where it can be minus 60 degrees F. Some ornithologists suggest that the changes in the Polar ice cap have made such transatlantic migration more possible.

I always get the shivers when they honk at me from above as they ply the silvery dawn sky in V formation. While bird watching from the boat that morning I knew I was watching something very special from my privileged perch.  But what I hadn’t realized is that all of us, except the goslings, had flown at least 2,500 miles to get there!

Copyright © 2013 Gayle Madison