Home is where your nest is, even on a busy road
It’s a busy section of Fanshawe Park Road, between Highbury Avenue and Adelaide Street, at first glance cars going by might not even notice, but truck driver Nathan Watson did during his route.
“Earlier this week I was driving back to the yard and I noticed the Dame right here, just standing there and it kind of startled me,” Watson explained.
The Dame, is a mother goose, who has chosen a concrete planter in the middle of the road as her nest.
Brian Salt from Salthaven Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Centre said while it seems like an odd place for a nest, there is a logistical plan with this placing.
“When building their nest in a high traffic area like that, they set up a barrier to their natural predators,” he said.
Watson, among others is concerned about the mother goose and goslings that are still protectively under her.
“First thing that came to mind was, you know, if she's parked up a bed here, she can get hit by cars. It could be a car accident caused multiple accidents,” said Watson.
A mother goose has some worried about the placement of her nest along Fanshawe Park Road, between Highbury Avenue and Adelaide Street in London, Ont. pictured on Thursday, May 18, 2022. (Marek Sutherland/CTV News London)
While it’s a natural reaction to want to help, Salt says there are many reasons why you should leave the nest and the Geese alone
“The materialistic us says ‘there's something wrong with this picture.’ But in actual fact, the geese are seeing it from a whole different perspective and are much more knowledgeable above all of this,” he said.
Watson just wants drivers on Fanshawe Park Road, between Trossacks Avenue and Glenora Drive to slow down and keep an eye out for the young family as they will soon be taking their first steps.
Salt believes mother goose has been researching over the last month while sitting on that nest, and will know when it is time to cross the road.
“They know the traffic pattern,” he said. “So oftentimes, they'll move those little goslings in the cover of night so that the traffic isn't quite as great. They just seem to know, you know. “They're very, very smart that way.”
A couple of goslings were visibly moving around when mom shifted her seat on Thursday morning, meaning they will likely start to move around within a day or so.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.