A pair of Greater White Fronted Geese made their nest on a White Stork Platform at Schloss Benkhausen in the Minden-Lubbecke District of Germany. The platform had been built in 2019 as part of the ‘Save the White Stork’ Committees efforts to bring the White Storks back into the area. The goos laid twelve eggs. Ten of the twelve eggs hatched and this morning, 16 June 2021, those ten fuzzy little goslings took a 23.4 metre leap of faith (80 feet).
It was the first time that I had seen the two parents on the nest at the same time.
They spent a lot of time checking the surrounding landscape to make certain that there were no predators around. No doubt a fox could have heard all of the cheeping of the goslings under their mother.
The mother eases away and begins to let the little ones out from under her.
You can see one of them.
Then there are two. The parents are still checking to see if it is safe.
Both parents checked the two eggs that had not hatched with all the others and determined that they were not viable eggs. Then an adult jumped to the ground. Once they had determined that it was safe, the other goose made sure that the little goslings were standing along the rim like they had been when both parents were up on the high nest.
Then that parent jumped!
And then the ten little goslings all took a leap of faith and jumped down to join their parents.
Congratulations! What a glorious way to start a sunny summer morning.
Thank you to the streaming cam of the Schloss Benkhausen. That is where I took my video clip and screen captures.
