Story and photos by Tom Chillemi
No one knows from where the white goose came. But her agreeable personality has made her popular at the Urbanna Town Marina at Upton’s Point.
“Aflac” as she is known, showed up about 6 weeks ago at the town marina on Urbanna Creek, where she’s found a home—and a place to get a handout.
Don Lowrey, part-time dock master, said some boaters fed Aflac one evening and she was back at their boat at dawn the next day honking for breakfast .
She also performs for food. Some whistling got her stirred up and she began flapping her wings, running on top of the water as if she were going to fly away. Nah, where would she go that’s better?
Aflac’s flapping wings, captured in photographs, gives a fascinating insight to her wing structure and feathers.
“She’s precious,” said Catherine Via, who, along with her sister Beatrice Taylor, operates Payne’s Crab House next to the marina. Aflac was at her business first, said Via. “She stayed here for a while, but she likes it better over there [at the marina].”
When Aflac first showed up, she followed Via to her car. Via was afraid that if she left, Aflac would follow her onto the road. She coaxed Aflac into the water, but the goose quickly swam under the dock to circle back on land.
Via calls the goose “Diddle,” a word used by her grandmother 65 years ago to call ducks and geese when Via was a child in Urbanna. “Diddle-diddle-diddle” was the call at feeding time.
On one recent day, Via heard Aflac squawking like something was wrong. “She was fussing like someone was after her.” Via was afraid someone had gotten the goose, but when she hurried over to the marina she found the bird unharmed.
Maybe it was just a territory dispute. Aflac faces off with blue herons who sit on “her” railing. “She flies up and scares them away,” said Tom Colligan, another town marina dock master. “It’s a comedy.”
Lowrey said Aflac is “very friendly . . . she’ll eat out of your hand.”
Aflac likes to get on the docks to be fed by visitors. “She’s quiet and very comfortable around people,” said Lowrey.
Aflac also will follow people who feed her. “I’ve seen her crossing the bridge a few steps behind them,” said Lowrey. “They had fed her and she was hoping she would get more. But they were not paying attention to her.”
Just what species Aflac is remains speculation. She has pretty blue eyes, and dark spots on her back, said Colligan, who thinks Aflac could be kin to the rare Cotton Patch Goose. “I can’t find any species closer.”
Cotton Patch Geese were used on cotton farms to eat weeds around the cotton plants. Their numbers dwindled as mechanization took over. Dr. Tom Walker has attempted to save the species at Greenfire Farms in Florida.
No matter which species Aflac is, she has become the marina mascot and has won a place in the hearts of just about everyone she meets, said Colligan. “Almost every day we’re getting an Aflac story.”
