A Tobias Update

He made it through the winter!  Tobias is still hanging around, but he's changing.  Our friendly gosling has become a sullen teenager.  His voice has changed, for starters.  Instead of saying, "hee, hee, hee," he now growls a deep, "huh, huh, ho."  He has also become moody.  One time when I go outside, he'll come over wanting to talk.  The next time, he'll hiss at me and bite.  Sometimes, he'll even jump up and beat at me with his wings.  (Luckily, he's just trying out this technique and isn't very sure of himself yet.)  It's a bit sad, but he is supposed to be a wild animal, after all, not a house pet.

I can see pools of water out in our snowy field, so the geese should soon be landing there.  Right now, the flocks are still small, and they fly up and down the creek south of our property.  Tobias tilts his head and listens intently as they go honking past.  A few days ago, he started to call a response once in a while.

This morning, I heard more honking than usual outside the house, and looked out a window.  There were two wild geese on our pond, only fifty feet from the house, where no geese have ever landed before.  Tobias and Charlie stood on the bank nearby.  Soon, Tobias went into the pond and floated there a few feet away from the wild couple for about fifteen minutes.  When they left, he flew with them, but he only went as far as the bottom of our field, then landed, called once, and came back to the pond.  First Contact!!!

I couldn't figure out how to rotate this picture, but I like it, so just look sideways!