Digout has been taking walks down the Saskatchewan river near his Saskatoon home since he began working from home and bringing his camera to shoot the local wildlife. He first came across the geese there.
Digout revealed. “Obviously, there was a lot of goose activity since they were coming from the south and looking for a place to nest.” Every night, I walked out on to the riverbank in search of beavers. It must be entertaining to watch the geese compete for nesting sites and defend their nests.
Digout saw the first group of goslings hatch in May. “When they’re small, they’re like little tennis balls with legs,” Digout added. “So I started photographing the goslings while I waited for the beavers to appear.”
Digout saw a mother goose and an unusually large group of goslings while resting near some reeds along the riverbank one evening. He counted 16 fluffy bodies crowded beneath their mother’s protective wings as the children began to crawl beneath her feathers to sleep for the night.
He counted 25 goslings one day and 30 the next, until he came upon the mother goose and her partner with 47 young. Digout discovered that this amazing mother was raising goslings for a number of other houses. This is common in urban and suburban areas with many nests and is known as a “gang brood.”
Digout could tell this goose mother was the best candidate for the job right away: “It was amazing how calm she was with so many goslings around,” he added. She struck me as an extremely patient mother.
