Sep 30, 2013

Injured goose at Hellyer Park

By Deanna Barth






Yesterday, I answered an emergency call about an injured Canada goose in Hellyer Park, in San Jose. 

I’ve been to Hellyer Park quite a few times when doing “my rounds", so I knew what to expect. There could be, literally, hundreds of geese there. With that in mind, I brought my 7 year old daughter along to help.  

When we arrived, sure enough, the park was full of Canada geese, each one looking nearly identical to the next.  

We were looking for a goose with fishing line wrapped around its leg. Many of the geese were "resting". We'd have to "ask" them to stand to get a peek at their legs.

I reminded my daughter how to approach the birds - close enough to encourage them to stand, but slow enough not to scare them off.  

She took one side of the path, I took the other.   

We'd gotten about 40 birds to stand, when I spotted the injured one. 



It had fishing lined wrapped tightly around its leg, cutting into its skin. The leg was severely swollen. 

On approach, it limped a couple of inches, then sat back down. A few geese in the surrounding flock pecked at the weak one. I'd need them to move off if I was going to catch this poor bird.

I handed some crumbles to my daughter and asked her to entice them away.  

With just a few geese around me, I began tossing crumbles toward the injured bird, maneuvering it into place on my right side. As soon as I felt it was within arm's reach, I slowly crouched beside it, waited for the right moment, then pounced.  

I got it!

I gathered the big bird's wings and placed a pillow over its eyes to reduce visual stress. We loaded it into a carrier and transported it to the wildlife hospital - Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley. With luck, it will recover from this injury to be released back to the wild.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, the injury was so severe, the goose was euthanized. 

3 comments:

Jean said...

So very pleased that the goose was rescued. Hope and pray the leg can be saved.

Patricia said...

Lucky goose!

Lindsay said...

I'm so sorry to learn that the goose was so badly injured that euthanasia was necessary. But it's a wonderful thing that Deanna is able to involve her daughter in this very important work.