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Clipped geese
hit by cars
'Sally' is killed, 'Angel' is
By Treena Shapiro
injured, while 'Victor' stands
guard over Angel
Star-BulletinWHY did the geese cross the road? A Kahaluu resident has been asking that question since two geese were hit by cars crossing two-lane Kahekili Highway on Wednesday.
She speculates it's because the grass looked greener on the other side.
One goose died, the other was injured after apparently being hit by cars. A third goose, already missing an eye, made it across the street; it protected its injured friend when pedestrians approached.
According to Dr. Anne Frisch, a University of Wisconsin professor staying in Kahaluu on sabbatical, the geese lived in a stream flowing into Kaneohe Bay behind the Hygienic store at Kahekili and Kamehameha highways. Frisch, also national coordinator for the Coalition to Protect Canadian Geese, said she started visiting the geese while having her morning coffee after coming here last month.
Last week, the grass on the mauka side of the stream suddenly turned brown, perhaps from herbicide, and on Saturday the geese started crossing Kahekili Highway to eat the grass on the other side, Frisch said.
On Wednesday morning, Frisch had to stop her car for the geese walking across the road. Someone had clipped the geese's wings, making them unable to fly, she said.
"I thought, "Oh dear, this is not good.' "
So when she was returning to Kahaluu about 3 p.m. she decided to check on the birds.
But by then, a gray goose, whom Frisch called Sally, was already dead on the side of the road. A smaller, white goose named Angel, was hopping around on one leg. In a short video Frisch shot of the scene, another gray goose, Victor, hovered so protectively over Angel that the white goose was hardly visible.
Frisch and a neighbor waited with Angel and Victor, providing them with water and birdseed to distract them from trying to cross the highway again. The police and the Hawaiian Humane Society came to the scene, but were unable to capture the birds.
About 9 p.m., members of Wildlife Connection, an organization that offers rehabilitation for birds, came from Kailua to get Angel and Victor. The geese wound up in the hands of member Cindi Georges in Barbers Point.
According to Georges, director and founder of Wildlife Connection, Angel has been put on painkillers and will be taken to a veterinarian for X-rays and possible surgery.
"There's something wrong with her leg," Georges said. "Judging by her plumage she was hit (by a car). When she inhales, she's in pain." Georges suspects the goose has a few broken ribs.
Victor is faring better and making friends. He and another goose at the Georges' residence were busy bossing around a great Dane named Zeus yesterday afternoon.
"Both of the geese tell him exactly what he is to do," Georges said.
Frisch buried Sally in Kahaluu yesterday afternoon, decorating the goose's grave with torch ginger.
