The gosling was on its last grains of strength and it was obviously abandoned, as the parents were nowhere to be seen.
No chance that he would make it if I didn't find him.
In fact I was told that there were two of them and the other one was found dead earlier that morning. We have seen before that this was not a good place for the geese to have babies, as there are many raptor birds that fly in to scoop the babies up out of the water. So the parents must have abandoned the last two in fear of their own lives.
Note: Due to power cuts, I had to do a shorter post today, but also a good one. For the followers of the Franschhoek Motor Museum, I will do the contents of Hall 3 on Thursday.
This was where I found him and I knew immediately that something was wrong, as normally they scatter at speed when humans come near them.
So I gently touched him and the brave little fella tried to make a get-away.
I followed him at a discreet distance, as he went along at a very slow pace and I didn't want to scare him.
But I knew that sooner or later he would come to the side again, and I circled around ahead of him. At a distance, of course.
And finally he came towards the side.
So I got him and in the process I messed some water on my camera lens.
Nothing that a quick wipe of the lens on my shirt couldn't fix and you can see how malnourished and tired he was.
Luckily for this little guy I found some help for him, as there is a bio-diversity manager on the farm that I did not know about. I walked into the wine cellar building with the little one and asked at the reception if they had an emergency number for me to call as the little one was almost kaput.
A young guy brought a small box and said that I should put him inside the box, as the reception would call the bio-diversity manager to take care of him. Another guy walked in and he said that he found another one dead this morning, but he didn't see this one.
According to the oohs and the aahs, I could see that they were caring people and they assured me that the little gosling would be taken care of.
So, I left with a happy heart!
And That's All Friends.
Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Canon Powershot SX70HS Bridge camera.
