Perseverance - in need of a little love

The above pictures were taken one lovely spring evening in 2008 - May 28th to be exact. I often go down to my special spot by Barker Brook at that time of year. As I've related before it is always very healing and settling to be there. This particular evening I was sitting on the rocky beach letting my dog swim and play in the water - and all of a sudden I heard peeping. I looked up to see this little guy bobbing along in the flow of the brook. He noticed me and started to come my way, but Sophie (my dog) wanted to frolic in the water with him - and he wanted nothing to do with that. Sophie excitedly swam toward him and he somehow got away and went into the woods on the other side. I think it helped a bit that I was screaming at her to leave him alone...:) I looked around to see if there was a mother duck (at this point I assumed it was a duckling) anywhere around, but I didn't see or hear one at all. This intrepid little bird went through the woods and crossed the brook at a shallow area and made his way right for my feet! I just couldn't believe it. He just peeped and peeped - and anytime I moved he came with me. By this time Sophie had accepted my clear message that he was off limits for play OR for consumption. So there I stood with a little bird between my feet, no mother in sight, and nighttime coming on. I really wanted to help the little guy, but wasn't quite sure what to do. I thought that perhaps if I left him alone that his mother would come back so I reluctantly headed up the trail to home. He, however, had other ideas and followed me up a steep bank, along the trail, and up the road to my front lawn - peeping incessantly all the while! Right then and there I named him Persy - short for Perseverance.

There's much more to the story, including a Game Warden instructing me over the phone how to rock him to sleep so I could take him back where I found him in the hopes that his mother would MAYBE come back to him. By this time it was dark and, with the help of a neighbor, we were able to find someone who raised him at her home. It turned out that he was a Canadian gosling. Late in the summer he was released with a flock of geese that was living in the town park in Rangeley. I often wonder how he made out - and I will never forget how amazing it was to be sought out by a creature of the wild who needed love, care and help - and knew how to get it.

Perseverance

Baby bird, abandoned,
rides the flow of the brook.
Peeping his fear and
loneliness
he sees a chance for help.
Making his way to shore
he is challenged and threatened
by a creature larger than
himself.
He eludes the danger and
makes his way to the other side
to hide.
Knowing he cannot make it alone he
takes a chance and crosses the shallows -
drawn to the being he
somehow knows understands his needs.
He follows her,
tripping over rocks and roots,
instinctively trusting her worth.
She finds a way to help and,
in time,
he gains strength,
finds his voice,
fills out his body,
stretches his wings
and is released to enjoy
the wild and
wonderful world.

Sarah Carlson

August 24, 2008
inspired by Persy,
a Canadian gosling
who followed me home from
Barker Brook
on May 28, 2008