A goose has made herself at home on a third-floor balcony at Southview Grand Condominium in Medicine Hat where she has laid eggs.--NEWS PHOTO KELLEN TANIGUCHI
ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi
The Southview Grand Condominium on 13th Avenue SE has some new tenants on a third-floor balcony – a goose has laid eggs in a local couples’ flowerpot.
Audrey Luscombe and her husband Dwight say the goose arrived April 9 at 7:30 in the morning and was busy on their balcony for about four hours before she flew away.
“I went to check the dirt and she had laid two eggs,” said Audrey. “She didn’t come back for two days and then she came back and laid more eggs and she’s been here ever since.”
The goose, which they call Lucy, spends a lot of the day sitting in the planter on top of her down feathers and eggs. Audrey says they’re keeping an eye out this weekend for the eggs to start hatching – goose eggs take about four weeks to hatch. She adds Alberta Fish and Wildlife inquired about removing the goose from the balcony, but she declined.
“I said no. You’re not moving her. I don’t want her disturbed,” said Audrey. “She has a few more days and when they do hatch, she won’t leave until they are all hatched and it’s going to be quite noisy when that happens.”
Audrey says when all the eggs hatch, Lucy will push them off the balcony and they will float down to the ground and Lucy will take them to water.
Lucy’s mate, Lenny, also makes himself at home on the balcony once in a while. Dwight says quite a few people who live at the condo are interested in the geese and Audrey says she plans to post a birth announcement on the building’s bulletin board on the main floor when the eggs finally hatch.
Audrey gives Lucy water, and they leave the balcony door open at times but Lucy has never tried to fly inside. Dwight believes Lucy is used to Audrey’s voice at this point.
“When Audrey goes out, she’ll step out and if Audrey has something in her hand and is trying to put water in the dish or something … she attacks that dish, but she never gets up and flies at Audrey,” said Dwight. “Every morning Audrey goes and opens the door and says, ‘Hey Lucy, how are you doing?’ and that type of thing.”
Lucy isn’t the first bird to make the Luscombe’s balcony her home, Dwight says they used to have a family of four finch birds that used to come and eat food they left outside for them.
“It’s fun to watch them and I like to see wildlife,” said Dwight.
Audrey is happy the goose is there, but she says she is ready for her planter to be empty so she can plant her flowers that are on standby.
“Every day it’s like hurry up and have those babies so I can plant my flowers,” she said with a laugh.
