I am all kinds of late on this particular post. I was going to put it out Saturday and then got distracted and then planned to squeeze it in Sunday. When those days passed I figured yesterday at the latest. Clearly this Mother Goose is not pleased with my priorities.
So, without further delay, Happy belated Mother’s day to my mother and all the other mothers out there that are tasked with raising us and preparing us to take on whatever the world decides to throw at us. From the path of gosling to adulthood, they are either there physically to help guide us or at least in spirit as we continue to build off whatever lessons we were able to put in the memory banks.
Hit the jump for more gosling fun.
My mother is a pillar of strength for the family. She has been a shining example of how to meet unexpected challenges and give it a face slap and send it on its way. A cancer survivor and making it through this Covid crap to highlight a few examples. I am sure the challenges have been even harder since my Father’s passing.
Luckily my brothers and I are relatively close allowing us to visit her from time to time to check in, see how everything is going and handle any of the heavy tasks. The reason I missed getting this out yesterday was we were down there to get my final vax jab and popped in afterward to belatedly extend best wishes on her special day – then got my butt home in case the shot decided to ravage my body and risked forgetting who I was.
Mom appeared to be doing fine as expected and I think she was extra happy as she became a Great Grandma again just few days before. Another gosling in the family to cherish and bestow her infinite wisdom on. They declare one day in honor of our mothers – not nearly enough in my opinion – let’s make it the whole month of May.
Should probably provide some background to the series chosen for the backdrop. There are no shortage of gosling shots here at Intrigued (link here, here and here for starters). They are like a magnet to The Beast. It sees those cute furballs exploring their new world and next thing I know the glass drags me over and I end up shooting the crap out of them until the sun goes down or the parents decide their family has been exposed long enough to those crazy birders
This particular series of shots comes to you from Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge in May ummm… wellllll.. uuuuuuhhhh…4 years ago. You thought my procrastination on getting this Mother’s Day post was bad ha! If it makes it any better, Linda and I were down there last Friday and I took even more shots of Geese with their goslings (The Beast made me do it). Imagine you are simply looking at those more recent shots.
These particular Canada Goose parents must have spent time in the Royal Canadian Army. “Get in line, heads up, move those legs – march, march, no eye contact, march, march…”
“Keep that line straight boys (or girls – no idea) – hey Mom, is this really necessary, there’s a whole bunch of kids just lollygagging in and out of the dugout over there on the bank!”
“Son, you know what that makes them? – Lollygaggers? – right son, ’nuff said” (23 years old and still one of the greatest baseball movies ever made).
Well, it’s been fun, but time to wrap up this tiny tribute to Mom. Will leave you with my favorite shot from the series.
There’s always at least one child that gets where you are heading – the rest of us need a little extra direction – Thanks Coach!
Wildlife Intrigued 
Delightful goose families. I saw some pretty new goslings the other day.
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Definitely that time of the year – We had the opportunity to photograph some new cygnets the other day down by Emiquon. Not my favorite bird as they are downright cranky, but their offspring are cute as hell. Thanks Timothy for dropping in Timothy!
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Awww, that was a great story! The goslings are total cuteness, and the photos of the every-which-way little guys reminds me of my mom’s efforts to keep us corralled. Yay Moms!!
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Thanks Sam – oddly enough, these types of posts are always a bit strange to write as my brothers and I were not raised to openly express any emotions – especially those in the “feelings” category. We all have a very strong family bond, but you won’t see us kids say these things directly in any setting beyond sitting behind a keyboard and lightly dancing around the topic. I had to laugh when I read your comment on the coralling, you expressed EXACTLY what I saw when I took that picture – like minds. Appreciate you dropping by Sam and that Emporium sounds like an interesting place to visit.
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Very sweet!
I think allowing for an entire “Mom” month would only push the procrastination of my children into June or July!!! It is a good thing my oldest has a wife that is on top of him otherwise it would go unnoticed. 🙄 Better late than never, and as a Mom is always forgiving.
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As a military mom, you need to whip those kids into shape – there shouldn’t be any procrastination beyond the standard 3 day grace period (enacted as a result of me being .. you guessed it 3 days late ha) to say thank you to our Moms (unless deployed, I will give them the benefit of the doubt in that case). My brothers love to talk about how much of a handful I was growing up and how forgiving of a Mom we have – I think it is a trait that gets weaved into the mother’s DNA during childbirth. Don’t worry CJ, I have no doubt your kids appreciate you.
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LOL. Yup, the oldest is deployed and he actually did make it within timeframe of that Day. The youngest was on top of things and sent me a message first thing Mother’s Day. I like to think I am forgiving. 😂 Thanks for stopping.
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wow, beautiful birds and blog
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Thank you for the kind words! Based off your blog it appears we have a similar respect for nature. Appreciate you dropping by and joining the conversation.
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You are welcome and nature is amazing, love it
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We are definitly looking at a very happy mother
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You are correct Rudi, I think she was all puffed up in pride as I was taking the pictures of her children- protective… but prideful ha. Thanks for dropping in.
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Furballs? Or fuzzballs. Featherballs doesn’t seem right either. Too much water in the background to be our former employers parking lot, unless these are from 2013.
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You definitely have me there, completely escaped me. Puffballs might be more appropriate or possibly featherbombs – not sure, but definitely not furballs – good catch. These were taken down at Emiquon – never really liked pulling my camera out on the company’s grounds being their highly secured compute center.. err. was their compute center. I do remember the flood (maybe not the year). I still have the paper somewhere detailing all the elevations of East Peoria in relation to the dike. To its credit, it never gave in all the storms we had.
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