Yesterday, I got a call about a "gosling" that had hatched at the lake that had spent the night in the freezing cold rain and hail the night before next to his dead friend's body. I knew that none of the geese were tending a nest or even breeding, so I went over to take a look and found this guy:
When I first saw him, I thought he was a Pekin, but he had a weird shape, thick legs, and a weird shaped head that was triangular like a goose. He was also found hanging out with the geese and the worker who found him was pretty certain he was a gosling. I took him over in a crate to the geese and though several were curious about him, none seemed to claim him, so I know he wasn't one of their babies. He was also the wrong color, all yellow. There are only three all white geese there and two are male and one is a female bonded to a gray male in which both breeds breed gray and yellow goslings. So, I knew he had been dumped there.
Before I left to go look at him, I sent an email to several people with my cell phone number attached so that they could call me while I still had them. There's pretty much a no tolerance policy with animals at the apartment where I live, so I couldn't take him home. I went to a couple of feeds stores and they couldn't provide a heat lamp. Consider that he was already hypothermic, I didn't want to leave him anywhere that wasn't warm, so I decided to take him to the local wildlife center to see if they can take him.
Well, on the way there, I got a call for someone who would take him in case the wildlife center couldn't (and they couldn't. The next step was to bring him to the animal shelter). So, I brought him to her house. She already has several chickens, ducks and a couple of geese and wanted to get some more. So, she took in the little guy and kept him warm.
It turned out he wasn't a gosling at all, but a jumbo Pekin duckling, probably about one to two weeks old. He's just old enough where he would begin to be weaned off a heat lamp, but still way too young to be out in under 40 degree wet weather. So, now he has a home and is going to be one spoiled ducky from what I could see of his new owner's other animals.
Too bad about his friend, though. If I had seen them before the storm, I could have saved both.
In other news, Oreo was seen trying to hang out with the 4 "babies", which are actually a group of four Pekin drakes that were dropped off last September. They are actually not babies, but I call them that. Oreo still misses his friend and even though he follows Cinnamon around, I think he still identifies himself with Pekins (even though he's a Swedish duck).
