They are not terribly friendly birds. They have a reputation for being a bit nasty, which seems contrary to the reputation most of the people would like to cultivate in this country. And there do seem to be more of them.
I thought I was just imagining things. But I’ve been seeing them everywhere this fall. Along the coast, in the lakes, on lawns, in parks, in farmer’s fields. Canada Geese seem to be everywhere.
While we hear about most birds suffering a reduction in numbers over the past few years. Populations of geese were starting to dwindle, but it seems they have been making a bit of a comeback. Sure, you hear about large flocks of geese making a nuisance of themselves, mostly because the nickname “cobra chicken” has not been given lightly. While people have been going out of their way to make things better for the geese, the geese do not feel the same about humans. They will try to take us out if they get the chance.
The other day I noticed a few geese that had landed in a farmer’s field. They were doing the goose thing. Eating whatever they can find that has been left in the fields. In this case, there was a cow who seemed to be thinking whatever food might be left belonged to them. There was an epic stare down underway. The cow was looking at the goose. The goose was looking at the cow. The cow might have been a much larger animal, but I wasn’t about to bet against the goose.
Unfortunately, I didn’t wait around to find out how it worked out. But it was rather amusing. A bird looking rather intent on taking down a cow.
But I did look online to see if there were, in fact, more geese around. Apparently there are. There was even an article from a couple years ago saying how American conservationists had done too good a job with the geese. They are starting to take over the world. Or at least all our fields and lawns.
I’ll be honest, I really don’t have anything against that. There are a lot worse things that can happen other then being forced to bow down to our goose overlords. And maybe if we keep eating other animals that take up space in their fields, they’ll let us hang around.
Now if they could work on songbirds a bit more.
