State

Leaders are rounding up various groups of geese preparatory to starting on the long flight northward. The Migration Mrs. G;i<№ v gives a vivid descrip¬ tion of (he recent maneuvers of w ild geese that took place on the Gaddy farm in Anson County. By IIA/II It OSS GAIHIY W II II.K the resorts all over the country a re worrying about the tourist trade this summer U- '•niise many of their gue.ts will Ik- staving at home this year due to a shortage of ears and tires, we have en¬ joyed one of our most successful sea¬ sons. Our visitors never have to worry about a shortage of anything. Their need s do not include rubber, gas, oil or steel: only a little wing power. For our tourists are wild goose. Kv- ery year scores of them stay with us ••n the lake which is located on our farm in Anson County. My husband and I feed them and look after their welfare in other ways. Most of them become surprisingly tame. We had a successful and happy season this winter- until the very end of the season. And then — tragedy struck our little “resort.4 Getting in Training At this lime of year, the wild-geese visitors exorcise their wings by doing some living every «lay preparatory for the long flight up north that lies ahead of them. The decoys join them in these tours which cover this whole nock of the woods. The whole thing 6 is remindful of runners training for a hard race ahead. П11 the morning of March 17. some vandal shot into one of these train¬ ing groups while they were taking their morning exercise. When, at some distance, wo saw them returning to the pond, they seemed to 1ю fighting one another in the air. hut as they neared us, we saw that they were liv¬ ing directly underneath several wounded memlicrs — keeping them up in the air until they could roach water. Гром closer observation we discov¬ ered that dill and Jerry (mother and offspring) had both lieon wounded. I might say in this connection that in our l<> years experience with wild geest1. Jerry is the first and only gos¬ ling hatched from a gander's second mate — the “pa” in this particular in¬ stance being Gander Jack. The three •>f them have always been inseparable, and where you find one of them you’ll always see the other two close by. The (lock of geese, with the two wounded members in the middle, set¬ tled down upon the lake, and imme¬ diately Gander Jack stood guard over them, refusing to let anyone come near them. .1 ill'.- left thigh was broken, and Jerry was wounded internally. He would drift around on the water, and at times would eomo out to a secluded spot to lie around, not eating any¬ thing. He lived just two weeks and two days after having been shot. Such a tragic end for our brave little wild- goose friend! Still another goose, wounded in the right side hut not quite so seriously as the others, was Lady MacArthur, helpmate of General MacArthur. A short time before, the General had ousted the former leader, Mr. Bow¬ legs, and hail assumed command of the decoys. The fact that Mr. and Mrs. Bowlegs had already gone nesting is the reason that they probnblv did not get killed. Some Didn’t Return On the morning of the shooting, about JO geeso did not return to the refuge. Among this number was Whitov, a wild goose that was finish¬ ing his fourth season with ns. We just ho|H‘ that lie did not get killed and that, instead, he became frightened and migrated earlier than he had in¬ tended to. On the morning of March 20, after feeding the geese, we left the refuge at about 11 o’clock and didn’t return until five. When we went back, we found that approximately 100 more wild visitors had stopped by to rest on their northward journey. The migra¬ tory call was given a few minutes aft¬ er our arrival. That particular call is different from any other. If you once hear it. you will always recognize it thereafter. The geese flow into the air: then back onto the water. Once more into the air. circling ns they alighted in a field near the lake. There was so much action that one’s eyes could hardly take it all in. Our ears were resounding with the melodious honk¬ ing of about 225 wild geese. These thrilling maneuvers contin¬ ued for about half an hour. Appar¬ ently there was a chief leader and also several assistants who were rounding up different groups. The 100 newcom¬ ers and about 70 of our own wild vis¬ itors finally strung out in one long line. Just as they were clearing the tree- top- four more birds rose from the water and tagged the line. As they fad¬ ed into the distance, they formed one large "V” and were gone, leaving the faintest echo of that merry honk¬ ing farewell. I just wish that everyone could at least once in a lifetime visit such a thrilling migration. I do not know of any sight that is more exciting. The migration left about JO tourists who settled down as though they in- ( Con! huird on page Iwenty-two)