Attention: TDR Forum Junkies It looks like the Ford "cackle" is attractive to some.
>Lidgerwood, N. D. - Maybe it was the deep violet color. Maybe it was the sound of the diesel engine. Maybe it was that first honk of the horn.
>Or maybe, jokes Ken Heley, the wild Canada goose that apparently imprinted with his 1999 pickup truck was just partial to Ford.
>Whatever the reason, Bubbles goes where the truck goes, flying at window level, usually on the driver’s side, until his two-ton mother gets back to the farm.
>“I imagine he would fly until he drops,” Heley said. “Once he’s away from home he is not leaving that pickup. ”
>Heley, who owns a 1,400-acre farm between Mantador and Lidgerwood, found the abandoned gosling in one of his fields last April and took him home in the tractor. He figured the bird wasn’t more than a week old.
>“I’m surprised he made it one night all by himself,” Heley said. “When we got him home, at first he didn’t want anything to do with us. We tried for a couple of hours to feed him. But once he took that first bite, he took to us like his parents. ”
>Heley’s wife, Donna, named him Bubbles because he sounded like an aerator in an aquarium. Oddly enough, the goose has never been fond of water.
>“Especially when he was little, if there was anything floating in the water he would just cock his head,” Donna said. “He wouldn’t go in there. ”
>Bubbles has turned simple family tasks into a two-step process. Although he doesn’t always follow the pickup, especially when the weather is lousy, he usually won’t fly more than once a day. So the Heleys will first take him on a work-out before completing their errands.
>“A lot of times we have to leave early so we can bring him back,” Donna said.
>“Usually if I just go down a mile or two, turn around, come back and circle the yard, that’s enough for him,” Ken said.
>Donna and Ken have tried to get Bubbles to glide on the passenger side, where the ditch is a much safer flyway. Occasionally a wide right turn will get him to flip-flop. But the goose prefers the view from the driver’s side.
>“We’re a little worried about that,” Donna said.
>“If you meet a car on the highway,” Ken said.
>“He’ll get killed,” Donna said.
>Normal cruising speed for Bubbles is about 40 mph, which he seems to handle with minimal effort. Bubbles gets a little flap-happy at 50 mph.
>“As far as I can tell he’ll do about 55 or 60 on top end,” Ken said. “But he has tremendous take-off. ”
>The Heleys took him to town, only once, when the Cenex in Lidgerwood held its annual largest goose contest in the middle of hunting season. Bubbles, who sat on the scale without a fuss, is the first live bird ever entered in the contest.
>He didn’t win.
>“But he got famous all around town,” Donna said.
>The Heleys have provided Bubbles with a couple of domesticated companions, the first of which disappeared. It only took a couple of days of having Bubbles under foot before the Heleys added another goose, known as Buddy.
>So far Bubbles and Buddy are just friends.
>“He won’t mate with that tame one,” Ken said. “But I’m thinking he doesn’t have much choice. ”
>Stories of birds imprinting with humans are not uncommon. That was the premise in the highly-regarded movie “Fly Away Home,” when a flock of geese eventually followed a pilot in an ultra-light aircraft.
>“But in that case the bird imprinted on the person, not the machine,” said Gary Nuechterlein, zoology professor at North Dakota State University. “I guess it’s not quite clear in this case whether the goose has isolated the pickup itself or is imprinted on the person in the pickup. You would have to have other people drive the pickup. ”
>Only Ken and Donna have been behind the wheel of the truck. But Bubbles will not follow either one of them in another vehicle.
>The relationship is not without its problems. Bubbles has a mean streak toward visitors and occasionally the Heleys’ children, Chase, 4, and Levi, 3. The goose prefers dog food to corn, much to the chagrin of the four-legged family pet, Shadow. And Bubbles does leave a messy trail in the yard.
>“There are some days I’ve thought of strangling him,” Ken said, smiling.
>“But we certainly couldn’t eat him or anything like that,” said Donna, also smiling.
>Lidgerwood, N. D. - Maybe it was the deep violet color. Maybe it was the sound of the diesel engine. Maybe it was that first honk of the horn.
>Or maybe, jokes Ken Heley, the wild Canada goose that apparently imprinted with his 1999 pickup truck was just partial to Ford.
>Whatever the reason, Bubbles goes where the truck goes, flying at window level, usually on the driver’s side, until his two-ton mother gets back to the farm.
>“I imagine he would fly until he drops,” Heley said. “Once he’s away from home he is not leaving that pickup. ”
>Heley, who owns a 1,400-acre farm between Mantador and Lidgerwood, found the abandoned gosling in one of his fields last April and took him home in the tractor. He figured the bird wasn’t more than a week old.
>“I’m surprised he made it one night all by himself,” Heley said. “When we got him home, at first he didn’t want anything to do with us. We tried for a couple of hours to feed him. But once he took that first bite, he took to us like his parents. ”
>Heley’s wife, Donna, named him Bubbles because he sounded like an aerator in an aquarium. Oddly enough, the goose has never been fond of water.
>“Especially when he was little, if there was anything floating in the water he would just cock his head,” Donna said. “He wouldn’t go in there. ”
>Bubbles has turned simple family tasks into a two-step process. Although he doesn’t always follow the pickup, especially when the weather is lousy, he usually won’t fly more than once a day. So the Heleys will first take him on a work-out before completing their errands.
>“A lot of times we have to leave early so we can bring him back,” Donna said.
>“Usually if I just go down a mile or two, turn around, come back and circle the yard, that’s enough for him,” Ken said.
>Donna and Ken have tried to get Bubbles to glide on the passenger side, where the ditch is a much safer flyway. Occasionally a wide right turn will get him to flip-flop. But the goose prefers the view from the driver’s side.
>“We’re a little worried about that,” Donna said.
>“If you meet a car on the highway,” Ken said.
>“He’ll get killed,” Donna said.
>Normal cruising speed for Bubbles is about 40 mph, which he seems to handle with minimal effort. Bubbles gets a little flap-happy at 50 mph.
>“As far as I can tell he’ll do about 55 or 60 on top end,” Ken said. “But he has tremendous take-off. ”
>The Heleys took him to town, only once, when the Cenex in Lidgerwood held its annual largest goose contest in the middle of hunting season. Bubbles, who sat on the scale without a fuss, is the first live bird ever entered in the contest.
>He didn’t win.
>“But he got famous all around town,” Donna said.
>The Heleys have provided Bubbles with a couple of domesticated companions, the first of which disappeared. It only took a couple of days of having Bubbles under foot before the Heleys added another goose, known as Buddy.
>So far Bubbles and Buddy are just friends.
>“He won’t mate with that tame one,” Ken said. “But I’m thinking he doesn’t have much choice. ”
>Stories of birds imprinting with humans are not uncommon. That was the premise in the highly-regarded movie “Fly Away Home,” when a flock of geese eventually followed a pilot in an ultra-light aircraft.
>“But in that case the bird imprinted on the person, not the machine,” said Gary Nuechterlein, zoology professor at North Dakota State University. “I guess it’s not quite clear in this case whether the goose has isolated the pickup itself or is imprinted on the person in the pickup. You would have to have other people drive the pickup. ”
>Only Ken and Donna have been behind the wheel of the truck. But Bubbles will not follow either one of them in another vehicle.
>The relationship is not without its problems. Bubbles has a mean streak toward visitors and occasionally the Heleys’ children, Chase, 4, and Levi, 3. The goose prefers dog food to corn, much to the chagrin of the four-legged family pet, Shadow. And Bubbles does leave a messy trail in the yard.
>“There are some days I’ve thought of strangling him,” Ken said, smiling.
>“But we certainly couldn’t eat him or anything like that,” said Donna, also smiling.
