Norton Simon Museum sends off its geese guests

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The sculpture garden at Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum looks like a Monet painting brought to life. With its serene pond, lush greenery and delicate flowers, the garden is a celebrated museum attraction and a natural draw for visitors. Especially the geese.

Last May, a gaggle of Canada geese tapped their beaks at the Norton Simon’s front door, eager to settle in the museum’s ideal geese-habitat. (Christopher Knight recounted their arrival in a Culture Monster post.) The museum welcomed the unexpected guests, but always intended to find a more appropriate place for them to settle. Now the museum wants to help the migratory birds to move on.

Thursday, an animal-aid service and shelter called the Wildlife WayStation moved the geese to its compound in the Angeles National Forest. According to museum spokesperson Leslie Denk, the geese have found “a more suitable location.” Let’s just hope any artistic sensibilities the birds developed from museum life won’t annoy their less-sophisticated avian companions.

-- Daina Beth Solomon