Baby Gosling

This morning Ciaran came running in from outside holding a baby gosling! At first I thought it was a frog he caught but he kept saying I caught a bird! Completely astonished I looked and discovered it was a gosling. The gosling does not appear to be hurt but is quite young. The kids took turns petting her gently (some research indicates that brown eyed goslings are femals and blue eyed male)and I went to find out what we are to do with this gosling. There is no sign of the mother or siblings anywhere. We have a fenced yard and two dogs so I am wondering if the dogs scared off the family and they accidently left this young one behind.

I had the kids listen carefully and sure enough they can hear the gosling make sounds which I imagine is her calling for her mother. We will bring the gosling to the part of the yard where Ciaran found her and keep enough distance in hopes the mother will come back. Otherwise we will need to capture her again and hold her while I call our local animal rehabilitation center.

I really had no idea what to do and my kids are thrilled and want to keep the gosling as a pet. This was a helpful website on what to do when you find a baby bird. Ciaran let it go nearby and is watching for its mother.

UPDATE: Well we followed the advice to release and watch and I am not so sure this was the best strategy. As we live in a fenced area and all our neighbors have fences too. The gosling ran under a fence and into neighbor bushes. We went to try find it but can not locate it. Now of course I am concerned for this little gosling as they really can not survive well without their parents and there has been no sign of the parents yet.

My children are concerned too now because they are worried and I was insistent that they release the bird so it could find its parents. Now they feel like the gosling has noone no parent and not even them to help. We will keep looking.


Peace,
Tenn