"Reliable" Goose fails at first hurdle.....

I wonder who coined that old adage 'never work with children or animals', they were obviously very perceptive whoever they were.

Our Goose Experiment, was well..........., I can only say it was a complete failure.
Our reliable Gander proved to be totally unreliable and wasn't interested in the goslings at all. We let him go the morning after we caught him and he didn't look back once, he just legged it to the nearest pond. It may be that he prefers to select his kidnap victims himself rather than have them forced upon him or it might be that he was confined overnight which upset him and put him off his usual habits. Anyway, the result is that we have still got the ducklings and goslings confined to a shed at night but they go out into a mobile ark during the day so that they have fresh grazing and get used to being outside. They are all very friendly and look great, so maybe we'll let them free soon.

We have lost several ducklings in the last few days, including a pair of European Shelduck which is very disappointing; I think we may have a pike in one our ponds and that it is responsible for our losses, but it might be a mink or some other predator.

On a brighter note our Snowy Owl is still sitting after nearly three weeks. She has shown great determination and hasn't moved however bad the weather has got. She is on three eggs which are due to hatch in ten days or so all being well.

The Fallow Deer are still pregnant with no fawns being born yet but the first births must be imminent so we are having a good look around each day. We are letting them out onto the lawns at night so that they have fresh grazing but they do leave their calling cards everywhere which creates a bit of cleaning up job. Nigel is starting to look more like the dominant buck that he is; his antlers are growing very quickly and he's got his self esteem back.

All the otters are fine but Hilda is still showing no signs of being pregnant and we haven't seen any activity that might suggest that she is.

The cubs are doing well. They have been in a destructive mood for a week now and break or attempt to break anything that they can get hold of. We have placed a childrens garden slide in one of their ponds to help them to gain confidence and learn the limits of their abilities. If they do fall off (or rather, when they fall off) they fall into the pond so its pretty safe for them. Smalley can only manage the first two steps but uses this vantage point to bomb his fellow cubs and dive into the water. Biggy and Cinnamon think its great, whizzing up and sliding down with great delight. Leap is still rather shy and we haven't seen her use it yet but maybe she does it at night or at other times when she isn't being watched.

That's all for now, lets hope for a little warmer weather in the next few days.