RICHMOND, Va. -- On Thursday's beautiful fall afternoon, CBS 6 was called out on the case of the wounded goose at the Forest Hill Avenue shopping center pond by Martin's grocery and Dickey's Barbecue Pit.
Brian and Chris Eckberg, who live nearby, have been enjoying the flock of Canada geese for a while now, having watched some of them grow up from hatchlings.
Two weeks ago they noticed one of them couldn't fly off with his mates to their nighttime haunts as usual.
"I noticed his wing was hanging down," Brian recalled. He wonders if it had been clipped by a car.
Stanley
Chris named him - or her - Stanley, "because he's standing alone."
They tried animal control, but it was no emergency. Bird rehab experts gave a similar response, they said.
"They don't come out," Brian said. "One of them said if we can bring him to them, they think they might be able to do something for him."
We had a close look, luring Stanley within touching distance with bread chunks. But we didn't want to try to pin him down, fearing to make his injury worse.
Plus, for the first time in two weeks, he flew a few yards, trying to join his mates in their sunset departure.
Stanley and Mark Holmberg
"Which is new," Chris said. "He hasn't been doing that at all."
They're hoping his wing is just sprained, and agree the shopping center pond is a pretty good rehab spot.
If not, they figure they can keep befriending him until they can lure him into a cage for transport to a wing doctor.
"We're very fond of them," Chris said. "They add a lot to the area. And we don't want to see anything to happen to Stanley or any of his friends."
