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Tale of U.S.-Canadian romance may well have blossomed for a particular goose at George Washington Birthplace.
By ROB HEDELT WHAT BETTER way to note the arrival of spring than relating a newborn tale of international romance at George Washington Birthplace? This story of love and livestock, shared by birthplace farm manager Dick Lahey, could goose us right into this new season. Lahey, who last year shared the story of a bull named Valentino brought in to revive a cattle herd there, got in touch this time to share a story of two little puffballs, "tennis balls with feet." He's talking about two young goslings that earlier this month became the latest additions to the gaggle of geese that call the Westmoreland County national monument home. But we're getting a little ahead of the story. To get the full feel of this tale, we have to go back to last July, a month or so after Lahey arrived. "It was then that one of our farm geese hatched out a lone gosling, and since the park had not had a hatch in recent memory, I took it as a sign that moving back to Virginia was a good thing," said Lahey, who'd worked at the park years earlier. Lahey said watching the young goose grow up was a hoot. "Farm geese spend most of the day with their chests out, honking and clumsily promenading around the barnyard," he said. "True to species, the little gosling spent her early months with her chest out, comically issuing high-pitched peeps instead of the more mature honks." Lahey said that the young gosling grew to a mature size, and on Jan. 2 of this year, didn't appear with the others in the small flock to be fed and led into their two small sheds for the night. "The sky and Pope's Creek were crowded with Canada geese for several days, so to make myself feel better about our missing bird, I rationalized that she had taken up with the Canadas in the creek," he said. Lahey said that he had noticed a chubby farm goose or two with the Canada flock before, so the rationalization wasn't that far-fetched.
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