For my last baby geets post, the problem was being too far away. This time, the issue was instead getting them far away enough. It seems you're always facing some kind of challenge with birds.
This flock was right on the trail and mama goose seemed unwilling to move everyone from that spot.
I assume it was a mama goose, anyway. There was only one parent and three goslings, and the adult goose was uncharacteristically silent. Without hearing the calls or being able to do a size comparison, verifying whether or not this was a mama or papa goose would otherwise be... challenging.
Possibly the reason she was staking out that spot was because there were in fact four baby geese, with this straggler who got stuck in the tall grass. He or she eventually managed to waddle free and join the others.
Mama goose was certainly very watchful...
...But let me take quite a number of pictures of both herself and the babies.
(Yes, they have teeth. After a fashion. So do penguins, incidentally.)
We were able to edge by on the trail without getting flap-rushed, nipped, or even so much as hissed at.
A little while after we passed by, the whole gang paddled out into the lake.
I noticed that three of the goslings stayed together, and one was lagging behind. It may have been the same one as before.
Eventually he caught up and all four were together again. Just look at how they bob around on the ripples:
We met up with the same flock again over on the other side of the lake, where they were backlit by the setting sun and that's where I got the headline photo. And also this one:
(Obviously I had the RF 200-800 on, so I really was still some distance away. The geese remained unperturbed throughout this encounter.)
Seen only a two set with adult yesterday morning. Does anyone know what is typical for a litter?
I don't know what's official but I usually see between three and six. Depending how wild the area in question happens to be some of them may get got by snakes, raptors, etc.