Nice Human Interest Story in the Bakken -- Twelve-Year-Old Raises Rescued Canadian Geese

I doubt I would have posted this story, but unknowingly I saw these two geese out at Lewis and Clark State Park last night (Saturday, August 27, 2011).

A pair of geese named Nip and Moose quietly follow the 12-year-old Quentin Corcoran he walks across the lush greenery of this state park about 20 miles east of Williston.

We had just entered the park, when I saw these two Canadian geese near the boat ramp. They looked very out of place, among all the campers, RVs, and people. In urban areas, I'm used to seeing Canadian geese on golf courses but not at boat ramps on rivers. There's no reason for them to be that close to folks when they have the whole river to themselves, so this time these two geese seemed out of place.

And then this morning, in the Williston Herald I see that that these are two of three Canadian geese raised by a local 12-year-old boy who rescued the eggs when the rising flood waters earlier this spring would have covered the eggs:

He found the nest with six eggs in it in the beginning of June while kayaking.“I kept watching (the geese’s mother)” he said. ‘She had a nest in the pipe and the water kept rising. I knew the water would come up and flood the nest.”

.... after the mother had abandoned her eggs Quentin Corcoran brought the six eggs home; three hatched and are now big enough to be on their own. One has already flown off, and Quentin assumes it's only a matter of time before the siblings follow.