A Day in the Life of George the Goose
George the Goose
Have you ever thought what it would be like to be a goose? What would a day in the life of a goose look like? It is now the time of year when the geese are thinking about heading south. We have an abundance of geese in our area this year. Snow geese, speckled bellies, lesser Canada, and the big white Canada Goose. I see them regularly. They fly over our house twice a day - morning and late afternoon. They are usually quite high in the sky, but sometimes they fly very low over our house, and it is just so much fun to see them and listen to them. It brings a smile to my face every time. If you live near a body of water, go out in the morning about an hour before sunrise or sunset. They will be heading somewhere.
So, let’s think about the life of “George the Goose” and his friends. I have not studied them a lot, I have just simply thought about it and will give you a few goose facts as well while we follow George around. Life in the fall is different from when they arrive here in the spring. Heading south is not the same experience as heading north. In the springtime nobody’s shooting at them. Trying to get home – back south is a different story. George loses some of his best friends every fall and some of his children as well to those big loud sounding things humans call guns.
Geese are late risers – kind of like teenagers or senior citizens that enjoy a little relax time in bed before starting their day. They like to get up 30-90 minutes after sunrise. They are not known as “early birds” hahaha! George and his buddies will start out with a morning visit with each other – how was your sleep – are you ready to go find breakfast? And here’s the thing. They don’t know if all of them will meet up at their breakfast spot. Why? Because the hunters are out, and they are ready to shoot down as many of these birds in the morning as they can.
George has a lot of friends. Just to name a few there’s Frank, Bob, Neil, Sam, Carl, Roy, Blake, Luke, Simon, the list just goes on. And of course, I can’t forget his wife, his life partner, Henrietta. That’s right, geese stick with just one partner unless they should pass away. If one of them should die they may find a new mate, but not always. No divorce amongst these birds. The average age of a Canada goose is between 10-24 years. Geese fly in a “V” formation and the front goose rotates out as the front goose has the hardest job and consumes the most energy. The geese honk from behind to encourage the front geese to keep up their speed – to pick it up – no time for laziness here. George and his friends all fly together every day. They will park in the fields and eat grain for a couple of hours in the morning. They then return to water or a field to have an afternoon nap. Awwww life is just so good or so they thought.
The sun has risen, and these late birds are ready to go find breakfast. They take off, flying in their “V” formation and honking at one another – come on, I’m hungry, get moving! Geese typically return to the same feeding place in the morning as they were the evening before. As they are having their evening meal hunters are out driving around looking for large gatherings of geese. These hunters will then set up “blinds” to hide in, so the geese won’t see them the next morning as they come in to eat breakfast. Poor George and his buddies have been set up. Life is going to change for him and his friends once more.
As they return to their favorite eating spot this morning, suddenly there are loud sounds of pop, pop, pop! Oh no, we are losing our “V” formation – our friends are falling out of formation. They have fallen from the sky. Who have we lost? George starts honking louder, come on gang we must keep going, don’t look below, just keep flying, keep flying as fast as you can. George and his buddies fly around 40 mph on average, but if they catch a tailwind, they can get up to 70 mph. George is really hoping for a tailwind right now. The popping sound continues until they finally reach their landing spot. Those that have survived this morning will now rest and look for their friends. Who did they lose? George is frantically looking for Henrietta. Finally, he finds her and their children, they are safe for this morning. But it all starts again when they go for supper. Life is not quite as good as it was a couple of hours ago. He can’t find Carl or Blake, he will continue to look, but it’s not looking good for his buddies.
The time has come to return to the water and head for a nap. Fortunately, for George and his buddies they can return to the water, or their grazing field safely and not worry about the humans and their guns until they return for supper.
Once George and his buddies get back to the water where they will rest awhile, it is time for them to stretch their wings and get some exercise. They do an exercise routine before they start resting. I call it Goosentrics. (If you have been following my blogs, you’ll know that Essentrics – Aging Backwards is what I try and do most mornings when I get up.) Therefore, I have decided the morning routine that I have seen geese do out on the water is called Goosentrics. When they get back from breakfast they land onto the water and swim around. They will flap their wings and do like a morning stretch routine as they figure out what they’ll do with the rest of their day. Obviously, a nap is in the works, maybe some flirting with their wife, some sadness as they figure out who they lost on their morning flight.
Around 5 pm George and his buddies will head back out to the fields to grab an evening meal. They are unsure as to what they are going to meet up with. Are we going to hear those popping sounds again? What does this next flight have in store for us? What seemed so simple has now become complicated and a certain sadness will set in once again. But George and his buddies will continue to push on, they must, this is what they do! Geese fly south every winter and return home to the great white north every spring. We’ve done it before we will do it again!
Hope you enjoyed my imaginary day with George the goose. I continue to enjoy the flight of all the birds around me. Some of our birds left our yard later this summer when we had Merlins move in. Merlins feed on other birds, so some of our birds, including my crows said, “we are out of here!” Hope to see them next spring.
Now, what song do I leave you with? Not sure if there are songs about geese? However, as I typed this, I thought of this song – and why not?
Snowbird – Anne Murray 1970, a Canadian artist, written by Gene MacLellan, another Canadian singer / songwriter. And it is becoming that time of year when some of you may be contemplating heading south yourself. Known as “Snowbirds” to our southern border friends. Stay safe everyone!
