They're here!

We have been waiting for the goslings to appear any day now, and I woke up this morning thinking I think today's the day, I think they're here! I went outside and didn't see much. I peered in to the house from outside of the fence, and couldn't see anything inside except Mama. I guessed we could have a few more days. We didn't really count the days on the calendar from when she started laying eggs this spring, or even when she started getting broody, or sitting on the eggs. We snuck in to candle an egg about 4 days ago, and we couldn't see a thing. We went into a fairly dark area and used a very powerful flashlight, but all we could determine was that there was an air pocket filling about 1/5 of the shell, they were dirty and they stunk. Like really stinky. 

So we went to Caras Park to check out Paul Wheaton's Rocket Mass heater demonstration, and then I went to a baby shower (oh the irony). When I came home, I saw little green fluffy babies in the yard. I thought Caleb might have stopped and picked up some kind of animals. So I ran to get my camera and came back and realized it was the goslings! They hopped back in the fence (we have several fence structures) and were sitting with Mama and Mister. They are so cute!

We had six goslings that we found today. We haven't rooted around the nest yet, we think she might have more eggs to hatch.

I noticed Mama has been molting, and she has lots of fuzzy down under those wings.

We were amazed to see how they just climbed up on her and under her wings!

Too cute.

Our 2 Gray Toulouse geese were a gift last spring, and we weren't even completely sure we had a male and a female-we got them as goslings from a straight run. They look very similar, only varying slightly in the shade of gray, and a couple of pounds different in size. We mostly assumed, or hoped we had a male and a female, based on their behaviors and saw them trying to mate a couple of times. I actually saw them try to mate in the water once, which I have heard that some geese like to do. 

About 6 weeks ago we noticed Mama's behavior changing, she was spending more time rooting around in the house, and starting to build up the straw as a nest. We just let her do her own thing, providing her with straw for her nesting. She incubated and hatched the eggs all on her own, while Mister stood watch.

So proud!! :)