New geese spotted on campus

New members of CVHS have joined the community over spring break in the form of goslings. Immediately after spring break, students and teachers alike quickly noticed a goose outside of the 700 hall set up its nest in a pile of mulch. The goose nest has since been fenced off from students and signs have been put up telling students to not disturb it.

In early May, the eggs finally hatched and the baby geese were roaming the campus. 

In April, it was common to only see the mother goose on campus, leaving many to believe she was all alone. However, more recently the father has been here as well.

“The whole family was walking between the 400 and 500 halls,” explained senior Vesemir Pirogov, who previously had a pet goose in Russia. 

By now, the geese have become a normal part of life at CVHS. Jennifer Clyde has even taken her whole class over to observe the geese and their daily activities. The mother goose was frequently seen perched on top of her eggs or sitting on the roof greeting nearby students by hissing at them, prior to her eggs hatching.

The students might not always be treating the geese with respect, however. 

“There’s a bunch of oranges and apples inside of the fencing from people throwing their snacks over,” said senior Josh Donaire. It’s generally bad to feed geese because it can negatively impact their health and behavior. 

One thing that nobody knows is how long the geese will stay here and why the mother chose CVHS to lay her eggs. 

“She most likely came over break when it was isolated to lay her eggs here, it’s hard to know exactly how long she’ll stay,” said biology teacher Jeffrey Foster. “There are also multiple geese, I assume the father goes out to look for food, or they take turns with the eggs.” Foster also suggested that it‘s currently the breeding season for geese, explaining why the goose chose CVHS during an isolated period to lay eggs.

Students generally seem to like the goose as it’s not uncommon to see small crowds watching her during break or lunch, however, Foster warned students about keeping a distance because geese are known to get very defensive if threatened. 

“They need to make it the new mascot already,” said sophomore Alan Li.