Isolation Adventures: Goslings and a Drake

Just indulge me, okay?

I know the quality of the pictures is pretty low (my iPhone camera has never lived up to expectations!) and the zoom makes them grainy and blotchy and faded … but I’ve been on a quest for more than a week to make this happen!

Day 1

At the far end of Adam’s Pond is a neat little cottage right down by the water, everything you could wish for in a weekend summer cottage in Maine’s Lake District. Red foundation, green roof, dark screens on the porch … it’s perfect.

And down in that corner of the lake is a modest little family of geese.

But every time I, with the aforementioned disappointing iPhone camera, attempted to get close to the little family, the gander would see me coming and hurry his family off.

Not only did that gander always see me, recognize me, and hurry his babies away, but somehow he managed to also always keep himself between the littles and my camera lens.

(I know, it’s good parenting on his part,
but I’m not the stranger with the danger, I promise!)

Astonishingly, I actually had (slightly) better luck getting a skittish chipmunk on film!

Day 6

I got busy during the week, or didn’t see the goose family on my brief walks for almost a week, until Sunday, but he still hurried his family off on my approach. I tried to snag some shots from behind the corner of the perfect little cottage, but that gander never failed to catch me peeping!

Day 9

Monday was more of the same. I tried to sneak some shots from behind a cottage like a peeping Tom, and Papa Gander was immediately onto me.

I snuck up as best I could, Papa Gander hustled the littles off, and the mallard drake that’s taken up residence at the end of one cottage dock felt much the same.

I strolled along at a sufficiently leisurely pace that Mr. and Mrs. Goose felt ready to bring the littles up on shore, but then I got too close again….

Day 10

You may have noticed that I’m getting more regular about this walking after work thing, but Papa Gander was not impressed. I felt like I almost got some almost decent images, though!

Day 11

This seemed like the least likely day to convince Mr. and Mrs. Gander of my good intentions. It’s quite hot for two days, and it’s the eve of a three-day weekend. This translated to more than half the cabins along the pond road being occupied, including a couple parties of a dozen or more. There were canoes, kayaks and fishing dories on the pond, and even a few kids swimming, apparently entirely oblivious to the lingering black flies.

And then, it happened.

Maybe the babies are just a week older. Maybe Mr. Gander decided I was far more polite and deferential than the rest of the lake’s human residents, or at least the least of all evils.

(Also, I did sneak up on them from around the corner of a different cottage than I usually use for cover!)