Figure 1 – Canada Goose, Marlborough, MA, December 2014. (c) DE Wolf 2014.

Many a Massachusetts High-techer who found themselves dodging wads of goose poop in the company parking lot or worse being “attacked” by a Canada Goose for coming too close to a nest in the grass beside the lot will long ago have labeled these majestic birds as a nuisance. But I believe them to be noble animals descendants of at least a hundred million years of evolution.

And whenever I see them my thoughts go back to an early spring afternoon, when I was driving from Ithaca to Aurora, NY many years ago.  The sky was a brilliant orange and it was filled with Canada geese (Branta canadensis) on the great migration north.  They were all around us, suddenly descending into a cornfield. The scene was inspiring, and I saw these travelers for what they truly are, the epitome of another realm of nature, where the ability to play out deeply programed instinctual behaviour is dominance.  We have our niche, they theirs.

The Canada goose was in trouble years ago and in many areas had to re reintroduced.  As a result many, indeed most, no longer migrate.  Still to me this tough adherence to avian instinct is part of the great appeal of birds.  In Figure 1, I have tried to capture the eye of the bird and used the sun reflecting from behind and to the right to illuminate the it with a catch-light that creates a sense of vitality. I am wondering exactly what he is thinking about me.