July 13th 2019
Yet more rain. In between rain showers we hurried to the grocery store to get fresh food. When we went out we spotted Morten the goose who wasn’t making a lot of noise for a change.
He had discovered a neglected surfboard, tied to one of the docks opposite of us and has adopted it as his chill out zone. Like a cool surf dude he stood on his board, head held high ready for the big waves. Apparently he was happy with his new hangout, because he made a lot less noise than the previous days. But his happiness was short-lived. Around dinner time a man who lives in the opposite street came out his door and dragged the surfboard on the dock. Maybe he was annoyed by the noise and was hoping that by taking away the surfboard, the goose would go away as well.
If that was his plan, it didn’t work. Morten was not pleased at all. He paddled underneath the dock, angrily eyeing ‘his’ surfboard and honking like a maniac again. We also haven’t slept properly the last 3 days because of the constant honking, but we felt rather sorry for that lonely creature. He finally has found something that makes him happy and it gets taken away. Besides, since he had discovered the surfboard he hardly made any noise.
In the late evening we heard commotion outside and felt the wake of a speedboat rushing through the canal. When we peeked out the hatch to see what all the fuss was about, we saw rescuers from the animal ambulance trying to capture Morten. Apparently people had been complaining about the noise. But Morten wasn’t about to ‘come quietly’, as they say. They chased him with with a speedboat and people with nets on the banks for the better part of an hour. He was like Houdini, every time when they thought they had him, he eluded them and popped up somewhere else, paddling fast with his neck stretched out flat on the water. But he couldn’t keep it up forever and in the end they cornered him. The rescuers took him away with the ambulance to another flock of geese. Turned out it was a young goose, who somehow had lost its flock. He obviously couldn’t fly properly yet, otherwise he would have just flown away when they chased him. We won’t miss his honking, but we’ll sure miss Morten the surfing goose.
