When a person is missing, communities react with organized search parties, fliers posted on light poles, even announcements on milk cartons. But for Blue and Squeaky, two geese that have been missing from Lake Murray for over two months, a small memorial rock garden located next to a tree near the parking lot by Shira Field will have to suffice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know to many people they\u2019re just geese, but they\u2019re not geese to me. They\u2019re family to me,\u201d Anna Falco said. \u201cIt breaks my heart because I don\u2019t even want to come here [to Lake Murray] anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Falco, along with her friend Lori Ciprian and other Lake Murray regulars that admired Blue and Squeaky, erected the memorial to the missing geese in mid-July after extensive searches of the lake proved fruitless in finding the missing birds.<\/p>\n \u201cOn days that Lori was here, she\u2019d go to different parts of the lake to look. We both can\u2019t do from one end of the lake to the other in one day to look for them thoroughly. And we went and we checked the entire water,\u201d Falco said, adding that they even recruited the help of reservoir keeper Gayle Havens to mount a search by boat.<\/p>\n But they found no sign of the geese \u2013 not even a feather.<\/p>\n Falco has all but given up on ever again seeing Blue and Squeaky, an oddball pair of birds \u2014 a white domestic goose and a brown Canadian. She befriended the couple around six years ago on her one of her daily walks around Lake Murray and said she saw them every day ever since.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve gotten a bond with them. I fed them every day,\u201d Falco said of the daily feeding of Romaine lettuce she provided the geese. \u201cThey started to trust me and started to love me and it was a bond that was, to me, a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n Because of the odd pairing of two different species, Blue and Squeaky made an impression on many of the birdwatchers and other visitors to the lake. The \u201cinterracial couple,\u201d as some people described them, were also sometimes called by other pet names like Elvis and Marilyn, Bonnie and Clyde, or Romeo and Juliet.<\/p>\n \u201cWe always knew where they were because one\u2019s white and one\u2019s brown,\u201d Falco said, adding that if they were at the lake, she\u2019d know. She also doesn\u2019t think the pair migrated.<\/p>\n \u201cAs long as I\u2019ve known them for six years, I have never seen them leave. They\u2019ve never gone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Blue and Squeaky aren\u2019t the only geese to suddenly disappear from Lake Murray recently. Falco noticed another pair and a single bird come up missing a year ago.<\/p>\n Falco said that most people she talks to suspect coyotes, and admits that that is a likely scenario. However, she also hasn\u2019t ruled out foul play \u2014 which is not as far-fetched as it might sound.<\/p>\n According to Millie Basden \u2014 recreational birder, certified California naturalist and volunteer trail guide at Mission Trails Regional Park \u2014 goose snatchers are actually a distinct possibility.<\/p>\n \u201cOf [several] possible explanations, capture by people seems most likely to me,\u201d she said. \u201cI am not aware of any actual documented cases, but it would not surprise me that someone would decide to have a goose for dinner or to keep them for eggs. Since these geese were habituated to people, it would be easy to capture them.\u201d<\/p>\n Although not ruling it out, Basden said coyotes attacking adult geese is rare and that if coyotes did attack Blue and Squeaky, it would be likely that only one would be taken, not both.<\/p>\n The geese might also have flown away, perhaps to another lake. Falco said she had already searched Chollas Lake for her feathered friends but did not find them there. Basden said the flying off theory would make more sense if both were Canadian geese, but didn\u2019t rule out the possibility.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy they would decide to fly away after years of handouts is a mystery, but birds do take off,\u201d she said. \u201cThey may be at Lindo Lake or they may have left the area entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n The annual molt, when geese shed and regrow their feathers, might also be an explanation for the missing birds. If a molt migration to another lake area is the cause of them leaving, or perhaps hiding really well, the pair might one day turn back up at Lake Murray, Basden said.<\/p>\n That would, of course, be the preferred outcome. But if it is poachers taking the geese, Falco hopes the attention she\u2019s bringing to the disappearances of the Lake Murray geese will get the word out about this illegal activity \u2014 a violation of California State Penal Code 597. According to signs posted around the lake, a person caught harming or harassing animals can be punished with a $20,000 fine and\/or prison.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re their voice,\u201d Falco said. \u201c[Blue and Squeaky are] dead and gone, but if we can get the word out, spread the word, we can maybe somehow stop this.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Fowl](\"https:\/\/missiontimescourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Untitled-1.jpg\")
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