Country diary: a bugle call sends us rushing to help the goslings

Sandy, Bedfordshire: Their downy chicks were in trouble, but the greylag geese were clearly unsure of our intentionsA terrible clamour rose as we were meandering along the boundary between lake and field. We had been sniffing a billowing bank of May blossom that spilled over a low, taut chicken-wire fence. I was being bewitched by the quicksilver dart of a caddis fly.Then goose bugles interrupted, the voices thrumming with distress, and my first thought was a dog on the loose or a day-prowling fox. The alarm calls led us further alongside the belt of trees and bushes beyond the fence, to where two greylag geese padded to and fro with heavy feet, heads tipped back, blaring anxiety. Continue reading...