Saturday in the park with geese

[selenak]

What's the English word for "child of wild goose" - "goosling"? Anyway, there are currently a lot of them in the Munich city park, aka The Englischer Garten, and they're adorable. Their parents aren't bad, either. Hence, gratitious pic spam.





Always with their parents, of course.








But they do make some excursions.







And learn swimming:




Meanwhile, another bunch stays on land:















Until they're pushed into the water:





At one point, a loose dog went too close to a family, and this resulted in some very mad geese, hissing like you wouldn't believe:



And telling their kids to go into the water:





I mean, that's just not on, dog!





The gooslings think so too:

Comments

[kaffy_r]

Oh my goodness, what little balls of fluff! I always enjoy your photos, and these made me smile. Do you know what type of geese these are? In my neck of the woods we have many, many geese who have acclimated themselves to year-round city living, almost to the point of overpopulation, but they are 99.9 percent Canada Geese; big and beautiful, and a little intimidating, even when they're not hissing. (And you were almost right on the name for baby geese. One baby goose is a gosling, and the plural is goslings.)

[selenak]

No, sadly I don't know the type of geese. But they are around in the Englischer Garten for the whole year, too, as opposed to the swans, who come and go with the seasons.

[kaffy_r]

Yes, I think geese can be eminently practical like that: "Why should I do all that travelling, when the humans have created such a lovely environment for me?"

[ratcreature]

They look like Graugänse to me, which wikipedia tells me are Greylag Geese in English (afaik they are also the most common in the Old World geese and the ancestors of the domestic). Here in Northern Germany you can also see Canada Geese, which established itself as introduced species living here year round. Those have black necks.

[yvi]

Should be Graugänse. Trust me, I'm a Biologist who spent one entire afternoon identifying birds ;-)

[lady_songsmith]

Goslings, because English is ridiculous like that.

Those are adorably fluffy! We get Canadian geese around here and plenty of 'em, so there are always goslings around the local pond. But I've gone two years without spotting any ducklings, even though we have lots of ducks too. Trying to take my walks out that way more often this year and break the pattern.

[selenak]

I haven't spotted ducklings this year yet, either, only adult ducks. Maybe later! But the goslings must have hatched just this week, for they are suddenly everywhere.

[wee_warrior]

Very adorable!

[selenak]

*coos*

[lilacsigil]

Hissing geese are scary, though those goslings are adorable! I don't think we have any wild geese here - that niche is taken by black swans, which are equally scary.

[selenak]

Black swans I've only ever seen in England, at Castle Leeds. Where they even have black-and-white swans. :)

[st_aurafina]

The babies are so cute but the parents are bit scary! My parents kept a pair of geese - the domestic, white ones - and they were a bit monstrous.

[selenak]

As kathyh reminded me, they saved Rome from the Gauls at one point. :)

[intrigueing]

Oh my god they are so adorable!!! Love these, especially the little guy hiding his face in the ground!

[selenak]

They'e the fluffiest. :)

[umadoshi]

I have a healthy respect for adult geese and keep my distance, but it's lovely to see pictures. And the babies are so adorable! *^^*

[selenak]

Adult geese have been known to save Rome from the Gauls, so I used my camera lenses well and kept my distance, too. :) The babies are the fluffiest!

[likeadeuce]

These are wonderful pictures, thank you for sharing.

When I lived in Newport News, Virginia, there was a park nearby that backed up to the mouth of the James River and a lot of Canada geese that migrated from the north would nest there and raise their babies. So we'd run across large populations of the adolescent geese (when they're tall and lean but don't have their flight feathers in yet) and watch them play what I swear looked like an organized football game with whatever bread people would put out for them. I wish I'd taken some pictures because it was quite something.

[selenak]

I can imagine! Or rather: you'd have to clarify whether they were playing American football or our European orginal which is known as soccer overseas? :)

[likeadeuce]

A particular goose version since they alternated between kicking and carrying it. It was interesting because they appeared to be playing w/the food as though it were a ball, rather than just trying to eat it...