By Birth It's A Native Texas!

Something changed this season. Usually, I see brood after brood of baby ducks. This year, I saw a total of three broods. One, granted, was the largest that I have ever seen with 20 little ones swimming with mom. The second was at that same location with a new mom and only two ducklings. Then, I saw the never before seen wood duck ( you know, the duck with the colorful plumage and Napoleon hat head dress that nest  in a hole up in the trees and the baby ducks have to jump out of the nest to never return until they breed). They were swimming with mom and dad. But that is all the ducks that I have seen this spring. I had even called a bunch of baby ducks in one post "goslings" then went back and corrected it because goslings are geese and I probably would never see any in Texas as the baby name of geese implied.

Well, strike that! I just saw a drake with two hens and each hen had three goslings. I had noticed a pair of Canadian Geese in one of the wet land lakes earlier in the spring and then noticed this pair (I thought was a pair) in a very unusual place which was kind of out of place for geese. But, it is in an area near a local creek, although the exact location is in an extremely high traffic area. Usually, I check those places out on Sunday mornings when traffic is a bit less race coursey.

This Sunday, it seemed to be almost without traffic and I had a chance to pull over on the shoulder of the road and to get a couple of shots of the pair? Wait. There were thee Canadian geese and the old Drake wasn't having it that I had stopped. He came right up to the edge of the road on the other side and raised his long neck upward to let me know that he wasn't to happy, but as long as I stayed in the car and didn't get out, he would tolerate me being there for a bit. Then I saw fuzzy movement in the grasses behind him. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. There were  six Canadian geese goslings! I had never seen gosling Canadians in Texas before. And...since they hatched  in that very place, they were, officially, Texans!! Now, that was really a first for me; finding native Canadian geese that were Texan rather than Canadian.

The goslings are beginning to shed their down and are quite plump. They have done well finding food in that location and I will have to watch them more closely now as they are beginning to grow their feathers. It won't be long before they are fledged.  So, next late winter and early spring, I'll have to watch to see if they come back since they were so successful this year, but, I still am wondering about the baby ducks that never showed up in large numbers like they have in the past. I'm glad to see the wood ducks and the beautiful Canadians but I miss the little mallards in the wildlife and nature observations.

Pappa had chosen a rather perfect spot and had two hens that nested with him. They each hatched 3 goslings.

Since I could not get any closer, This new Native Texan was the closest to the road. The down is beginning to be replaced with feathers. It won't be long now before they take to the air. And, Air Canada has a big metal bird that crosses not to far up the road at the big airport, but I'm more concerned about Southwest and Virgin American, as they are on finals  to Love Field and dropping landing gears right over head at about 1000 feet on the glide slope.