What is a Goose?

I had a friend in college who played golf in high school. The course where they practiced had several swan and goose decoys to distract birds from bothering players.

Well, she and her teammates often made a game out of hitting the decoys. It was sort of a rudimentary target practice, I guess, although at least no real birds were harmed!

@StarJo- Geese are not the only violent birds. Swans are even more dangerous. They will attack if they feel threatened, and if they run into you and want something you have, they can fight for their territory. We often think of geese, swans, and other birds as being sweet or peaceful, but sometimes just the opposite is true.

We have a floating nest in the middle of our farm pond that geese will usually lay eggs on every year. Most of the time after the the goslings are born, we will see them swimming around the pond with the male and female.

One year we came back from a four wheeler ride and one of our dogs had swum out to the middle of the pond and was on top of the goose nest. I was so frustrated with him and had no idea he would be able to know those eggs were there from that far away.

I really missed seeing the little ones swimming around that year. The geese did return the next year though, and we able to raise a new family.

We have a pair of Canadian geese who nest on our land every year. We live in the country and have a pond in our front yard where they come back to every year.

Canadian geese mate for life and often return to the same spot every year for nesting. My kitchen window looks out to the pond and I never get tired of watching these geese. The female rarely leaves her nest, and when she does she eats fast and furiously while the male stands guard.

One year I decided to begin feeding them corn, and if I got too close the male would really hiss at me. She will usually have anywhere between 4-6 goslings and they are so cute to watch!

Every year when I hear the geese flying over head, I know that spring is not too far away.

I love seeing a flock of Canadian geese flying in a V in the fall. I look up when I hear their distinctive honking to watch them pass in their cool formation. As common as these geese are in North America now, it’s hard to believe they were once disappearing until conservation efforts helped them.

When I had my TV on to serve as background for my chores, I heard the honking coming from the screen, and I stopped to watch a National Geographic documentary on Canadian geese. I learned that these geese can now be found in every state in the U.S. and every province in Canada at some point in the year. They adapt well and can live wherever they have access to grains, berries, and grasses.

I recall visiting a distant cousin in Alaska who trapped emperor geese to bring them to his farm. This breed is most common in Alaska, and it loves to live along shorelines and grassy areas. My cousin lives on Alaska’s west coast, and he told me that is where 90% of the entire world’s emperor geese population breeds.

These geese are very pretty. Both the males and the females have gray feathers on their body interspersed with black and white bars. They have totally white heads and hindnecks. Their bills are pink, while their feet and legs are a yellowish-orange.

My cousin said each female goose lays about 5 eggs. His farm population grew pretty rapidly, and he no longer has to go out into the wild to trap them.

My grandfather raised greylag geese for their meat for years. I remember always being afraid to go near them, because they chased me while wildly flapping their wings once, and I never forgot that. Maybe that’s why I didn’t feel guilty about eating them!

His greylag geese came in white, totally gray like the ones found in the wild, and a mixture of the two. The different breeds came in various sizes also, but their necks were always thick and their bellies pooched out when they walked. When they sat on the water, their bodies looked huge and very fluffy.

Wow, I had no idea that geese could be so violent and destructive! I used to visit a park with a large pond and feed bread to what I thought were geese, but after reading this article, I imagine that they were ducks instead.

This park was known for the friendly water fowl, and many children dropped crackers and bread for the birds. I doubt that wildlife officials and parents would have allowed for the possibility of a dangerous attack on a child by placing geese in the park. I imagine liability insurance for the park would have been tremendous!