Animal Rescue

So Esther had Tuesday 11 June booked off so that she could see friends who had not been in the UK for a long time.   In honour of her day off I pursuaded Ari from Interserve's team to join me in the boat for a few spins in the boat so he could practice steering.

An Egyptian goose (not the actual one)

We were happily paddling round and noticed the male swan attacking one of the Egyptian geese - not an unusual event as the swan is a bit of a nasty one and already has a vendetta with the little white duck.  We kept going and on the second trip back it was looking more suspicious as the goose wasn't swimming away and the swan really was trying to kill it.  So we approached and tried to get our boat between the 2.

An attacking swan (not the actual one

It transpired that it getting away from the swan the goose had swum into fishing line and become tangled on this.  We managed to get the goose away from the swan, find the line and cut it from where it had tangled to the edges of the dock.  However the goose couldn't swim and we were borrowing knives from passers by who we asked to phone the RSPCA or something.




The goose was exhausted and we clearly needed to get onto land and get the line from its wing.

Not the actual fisherman

One of the fishermen climbed down into our boat and carefully got the goose and line into the boat and sat calmly with it as we got to the dock furthest from the swan, where we cut and untangled the line - the fisherman was very careful doing this.


We sat calmly with the goose for a while and it was calmer with a cag over its eyes.  Then a fire engine turned up with firemen who are what had been called!  They were pleased that we had the goose, had freed it from the line and they professed no real experience in goose rescue and were somewhat unsure why they had been called.

After a while the goose got up slowly and had a good flap - clearly no wing damage so we left it to have rest while his missus made lots of noise.  This was lucky as Dan said I could not take it home

At the end of the night the goose had a swim and went to meet the missus.  They swam straight back towards the swan who chased them away (clearly not an intelligent goose).

As the geese flew to avoid the swan attack our already befuddled goose flew straight into lines which hold slalom poles up and came crashing down into the water.  We left him gathering his thoughts on the pontoon and hopefully he will be well when we go back on Thursday.

Somewhat amusingly I have been named as a hero: http://lovewapping.org/2013/06/sarah-shadwell-basin-outdoor-activity-centre-wapping-hero/  I'm not - I'm a fool who quite likes wildlife So thank you to Ari for putting up with my animal rescue attempts when all he wanted was some practice.  Sorry to Esther - you missed the most exciting night of paddling I have ever had at the basin.  Thank you to the fisherman for helping to sort it out. Thank you to the chaps who passed me a knife, and to everyone who was involved in our animal rescue attempt.

I must also report myself to the club committee for allowing someone into a boat and passed the yellow line without a PFD.

Sarah