We met this confused greylag when we were out walking in Weardale this afternoon. It seemed to think that it was a parent of these mallard ducklings and attacked anything that came near them, including me and someone's dogs that got curious about the infant mallards. The mother mallard seemed perfectly happy with this interspecific child-minding service and led the way, with the goose bringing up the rear.
Interesting Phil. A surrogate parent, and different species.
ReplyDeleteI saw something similar a few years ago at a local lake, with a Black Swan and a Mute Swan; even though the Mute Swans were a pair, the black tagged along anyway.
This was the only goose amongst a lot of ducks Keith, so maybe it was behaving this way because it didn't have a mate.....
ReplyDeletePhil geese guard anything within their patch. Better than dogs are geese. They use them around bonded warehouses. They are very caring birds.
ReplyDeleteHi Phil, if only geese are not so noisy, they are good alternative "guard dogs". But in our case maybe they will be bitten by other dogs.
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