I like geese. We have geese at Alexandra Park and they will take bread from your hands and hiss if they think you are ignoring them. I thought I’d share some interesting facts:
- they always fly in a ‘V’ formation; it gives them 71% more flying range (I wonder how scientists measured that?)
- all the geese in the flock go off on holiday together; no matter how weak or old they are, no-one is left behind; they fly at the back, where it’s easiest
- if a bird becomes too weak to fly, a couple of the others will accompany it to land and stay with it until it dies or recovers. How wonderful is that? here’s a haiku to celebrate:
Friendship
Geese guard a stricken
comrade until it dies or
flies again – how neece.
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they mate till death do them part and might be widowed for years before choosing another mate
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they home, which reminds me that I’ve been meaning to tell you about the Hub’s Granddad Herbert, who raced pigeons as a hobby, carefully feeding and breeding and cherishing them and then, once their useful life was at an end, eating them
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each formation has a lead goose who sets the pace; when it tires, it falls back and another goose takes the lead
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they honk to encourage each other to keep going, a bit like the Hub’s wife when he’s tired of stroking her hair
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lost geese or those who’ve stayed behind to help a poorly pal are welcomed into passing formations as members of the family
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they make great guard dogs (warning: this video contains excessive melodrama):
I have the funniest readers in the blogosphere (not necessarily ha ha…)