Warning, not a happy post.  So I have been passing this goose for about 4 days now.  The 1st time I passed I noticed a freshly dead goose on the side of the road and his/her mate standing there with him.  In this blog I’m going with it being a him.  I thought – how sad.  The next day I saw the goose still standing there.  on the third day I saw an animal control vehicle and thought – they must be here to remove the deceased goose.

Well today I drove by again and the dead goose and his mate were still there.  After I came home I thought to myself, if I want to expand my photography I can’t just take happy bird and flower pictures.  This scene had touched me each day that I passed to the point where I had to google whether or not Canadian geese mate for life.  The answer to that is, most often, yes.  While in some instances they may rejoin their flock or find another partner, that is not the likely scenario.

So as I was headed back to grab a photo, I said a little prayer to help the partner move on and at least rejoin their flock.  When I got back to the site I saw the mate crossing the road and thought – yeah – she’s moving on or at least going to rejoin the flock.  As I took her picture, I realized she wasn’t really leaving.  When she notice another bird getting close to her mate, she started making her way back to him.

After re-crossing the road she took up her stance by his side again.  I was in tears on the way home because I have no idea how long she will stand by someone that is never coming back.  The remaining photos are posted in gallery format to get the sequence correct.