Goose returns to roost at UI-CdA

She sports University of Idaho silver and black and never misses homecoming … except her homecoming is in March.

Ima Vandal, a Canadian goose, is back roosting outside UI-Coeur d’Alene Dean Jack Dawson’s second-story office. It’s her sixth year carefully tending her nest under Dawson’s watchful eye.

Goose partner Joe keeps a lookout from the Spokane River below.

“If any other goose comes up he goes berserk and goes after them,” said Dawson of Ima’s protective mate.

The six eggs are expected to hatch on or about Tuesday, Dawson said. And, if they hatch during the business day, Dawson’s office will quickly fill with Ima fans eager to see the fluffy, yellow babies.

And people all over the world will be able to see images of it all recorded and shown live from a webcam inside the window.

University information technology expert Rob Baxter set the webcam up the first year the University of Idaho was at the location.

It has been so popular that viewers are now limited to two minutes at a time to preserve university bandwidth. But Baxter said that if the eggs hatch during business hours he will try to record the event so that people can spend more time watching it later.

Although Ima lays her eggs over the course of several days they always hatch within hours of one another.

Ima’s perch keeps her eggs safe from predators, but presents a challenge for the goslings that leave their nest within hours of emerging from their shells.

They must leap 20 feet to make it to the boardwalk below and then amble along that walkway to another steep drop into the river.

It’s a tough start to life for a catapedaphobic baby goose trying to overcome its fear of jumping from high places.

Dawson said Ima flies off the ledge once all her babies have hatched and begins to call to them to join her.

“One year one little guy was afraid to jump,” Dawson said. “He just ran back and forth peeping and before long Ima, Joe and all the babies were calling to him.”

The goslings have reason to fear the fall.

More than one has hit its head on a metal railing on the way down. Some have been briefly knocked out by the impact, but all have shaken it off and made it to the water, Baxter said.

Employees work to increase the goslings’ odds by placing a soft mat under the ledge to give the babies a bit of “bounce,” Dawson said.

Ima’s success now seems to be attracting other wildlife to his window ledge.

Just feet away a pigeon is roosting in its own nest with its own hatched baby.

At the suggestion of a new pigeon webcam, Baxter shook his head.

“Our bandwidth would be down to nothing.”