Lucy and the Leap of Life

There is a stretch of the Crooked River near Prineville where Canada geese nest in abandoned hawk and eagle nests on sheer cliffs a far distance from water, and in some places 50 to 75 feet above the rocks and brush below.

There is another nesting site known as Goose Rock overlooking a bend in the John Day River upstream of Monument. If you visit these sites in April, you will see geese incubating eggs high above the flat ground and water beneath them, and yet, almost all hatch and survive every spring.

It's all linked to obedience. Once the eggs hatch, tiny balls of fluff that will eventually grow up to be majestic Canada geese must make their "leap of life" from their cliff nest.

Mother and dad goose call from beneath the nest, telling the tiny hatchlings that it is safe to make that leap from their soft bed of feathers out into clear air and plunge to what we would think would be instant death. "Trust me," the adults say.

Time and time again, mom and dad call until one brave ball of fluff obeys and makes the leap, followed quickly by the rest. With tiny wings beating the air, they drift down toward their bumpy landing below. Some miss the rocks and drop into tall grass, but others will literally bounce from rock to rock, most of the time completely unharmed.

And so it was this spring with a goose that nested on the roof of Sisters Middle School when Drew Jacobsen was assigned to write a report on the eventual fate of the goslings. To wit:

"It all started three weeks ago. I was walking down the hall when my science teacher came up to me and said, 'Hey, Drew. Did you know there is a goose that comes here every year and I was wondering if you would like to document it.' So I did, and that's how it started.

"For the next three weeks the goose, Lucy, sat on her nest. The only time she would get up was to go get water. While she was gone, her mate stood over the eggs till her return. Every day she would stand up and turn her eggs. I had been taking pictures over the course of these three weeks and I only got a picture of this once.

"Then, one special Monday morning, the eggs hatched. It happened before school so I didn't see them hatch but I saw the next best thing. Lucy was walking around the roof outside my Social Studies class window; she had built her nest on this lower roof so we could see her really well. The goslings were following her, she had eight all together. She was walking close to the edge when all of a sudden there were only seven.

"One had possibly fallen off the roof. But as we were trying to see the ground a yellow head bobbed up, and then back down, from the other side of the roof. The gosling was stuck in the gutter!

"Lucy kept walking back and forth trying to get him back. She eventually gave up and decided to take the goslings for a drink of water. She jumped off the roof and expected all of the goslings to follow. Instead of jumping off, the whole pack of goslings was stuck in the gutter.

"Eventually they got out and fell to the ground. When they hit, they bounced. The highest bounce I saw was about 3-1/2 feet. After all the goslings bounced out of the gutter Lucy led them across the lawn and across the street to the elk ranch. As far as I know they are still over there, paddling around in the pond."

I don't know about Drew's teacher, but I will give him an A+ for that wonderful report.