Goose drama

J. and I went on a walk next to the river this afternoon, before the Super Bowl. There’s a “beach” along the path north of the rose garden, where a lot of water birds congregate: mallard ducks (one with a grey beak rather than the usual yellow), visiting sea gulls, Canada geese, and the ordinary sort of geese, which the Internet tells me are actually originally domestic geese – white, sometimes buff-and-white, with long necks. As we approached this sandy spot, we passed the whole flock of white geese, which had congregated on the grass. Two of them let out long honks together, rather like fog horns, while facing us. We wondered if this might be directed at us (had we come too close?), but it turned out to be a signal for them all to waddle down the slope to the sand and then sip from the water. We had to get out of their way, as they were resolute. Three extra Canada geese trailed along behind them. As the geese arrived at the river, the swimming ducks moved to give them room.

Abruptly, we saw (and heard!) one of the geese dashing frantically to and fro, and it transpired that not one but two of the other geese were in hot pursuit of it/her. Then the two turned on each other and began to fight, presumably for the one they’d been chasing. They drew up their wings and charged at each other, trying to bash each other with their expanded breadth. The fight moved into the water – they each gripped the other’s neck with their beak and continued to flap their great wings while holding on. Then they tussled some more on the sand. We didn’t see how things worked out, as we were by this point a bit late for collecting D. from R’s, but, such drama!

I have to wonder if the two fog-horn geese at the beginning were the males announcing their plan to court the female and do battle if necessary, such that they then all moved to the appropriate arena for the event, or whether it had been some other geese who’d called out the “to the river!” signal, with the mating part more ad hoc.