Aggressive, Energetic Geese

I have a secret love of poultry. Not just to eat. I think ducks, chickens and geese in particular are just wonderful creatures. I can sit and watch them all day. Our neighbors told me about the duck pond in one of the very old cemeteries near my house, and Monday afternoon after nap, we decided to check it out. It was just a short walk with the stroller through a couple of streets filled with wonderful old houses. We arrived at the pond and Ms. CP and Mr. Perpetual Mess were very excited to see the birds.

Then the birds saw us. They honked up a racket! Within seconds we were surrounded by at least fourty animals, most of them geese, with just a couple of ducks and a small collection of squaking seagulls mixed in. Mr. Perpetual Mess looked at me and at the multitude of geese that were about his exact size and jumped in my arms. Ms. Crazy Preschooler clung to my leg and cried. They were terrified. The Banana just watched calmly from her stroller seat, enjoying the chaos.

The geese expected bread. We didn’t have any, and they were letting us know! After a bit they wandered away little by little, and about five minutes later, a car stopped at the pond. A thin woman in a dress coat hopped out with a sack of bread and was instantly surrounded by jabbering beaks. It was hilarious. Geese, even fat overfed ones, can really run fast when they want. There was a small group of geese who thought that since the other woman was demonstrating the proper way to feed geese, we would get the picture and bring out a bread sack of our own, so they ran back and forth between our stroller and the woman at the other end of the pond. I’m not an animal photographer by any means, but in this picture you can see them trucking on toward us, begging.

I laughed at their antics and want to go back again in a few weeks. It looked like several geese were sitting on nests, and I love baby geese. I might have to do some convincing though. Ms. Crazy Preschooler clearly stated she would not go to the duck pond without Dr. Pediatrician, who, she claims does a much better job protecting her from geese because he stomps his feet at them when they get close instead of passively trying to reason with her that the geese will not eat her up and pick her to pieces with their beaks.