- Nov 26, 2011
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I like to vacuum my brain by feeding some of the local avian wildlife at a pond near here. As I have become acquainted with some of them, I have named them.
Ducks and geese mate for life. There are several such couples here.
Geese don't mingle. If a geese couple is grazing by the pond and another couple comes by, the female of the first geese couple will put her chin to the ground and extend her wings and run at the newcomers, running them off. If they are on the sidewalk, the aggressive goose will slap her feet on the concrete as she runs so as to make a more fearsome sound.
A goose has a very large personal space.
There is this one mallard duck, Bob, who does not understand any of this. Bob goes wherever he feels like going. He mutters and talks to himself and will walk right between two geese. Sometimes he will stop right between them, and I have seen the female goose put her chin to the ground for a second, but she never charges. They seem to get there is something off about Bob.
When Bob's mate sees him heading for some geese, she disconnects from Bob and flies away in the opposite direction. Bob's wife cannot get away with mingling with geese. Nor can any other duck that lives there. Just Bob.
At first I thought Bob was talking to the geese. "Hey, how's it going? Is this cool, me being here?" But no. That is not what is happening. Bob keeps talking when he has passed the geese. He talks to himself non-stop. And if you distract Bob, he gets agitated you have interrupted his conversation with himself.
Bob has figured out I feed the geese, and he now occasionally will walk up to a pile of food I have put down for the geese and eat it. For any other bird, this is a crime worthy of severe biting and beating in the goose world. If a goose started eating another goose's pile of food, there would be one helluva beatdown and honking and feathers flying. But Bob is able to eat whomever's pile of food he chooses.
The geese are afraid of Bob the Autistic Duck, even though he is a quarter their size.
Bob will fixate on one pile of food. The first one he sees. He will walk past several other piles of food I laid down after the first one. Once he sees a pile, he sees no other piles. Bob will see me pouring food and come walking out of the pond as his wife flies away. Bob always leaves the pond in the same place and always walks the exact same path. Bob knows no other other way to get from Point A to Point B. If there are geese in Bob's path, Bob walks right up to and between the geese and heads for their food. The geese actually part for him.
Bob the Autistic Duck is King of the Pond, only he doesn't know it. He is too busy talking to himself.
Ducks and geese mate for life. There are several such couples here.
Geese don't mingle. If a geese couple is grazing by the pond and another couple comes by, the female of the first geese couple will put her chin to the ground and extend her wings and run at the newcomers, running them off. If they are on the sidewalk, the aggressive goose will slap her feet on the concrete as she runs so as to make a more fearsome sound.
A goose has a very large personal space.
There is this one mallard duck, Bob, who does not understand any of this. Bob goes wherever he feels like going. He mutters and talks to himself and will walk right between two geese. Sometimes he will stop right between them, and I have seen the female goose put her chin to the ground for a second, but she never charges. They seem to get there is something off about Bob.
When Bob's mate sees him heading for some geese, she disconnects from Bob and flies away in the opposite direction. Bob's wife cannot get away with mingling with geese. Nor can any other duck that lives there. Just Bob.
At first I thought Bob was talking to the geese. "Hey, how's it going? Is this cool, me being here?" But no. That is not what is happening. Bob keeps talking when he has passed the geese. He talks to himself non-stop. And if you distract Bob, he gets agitated you have interrupted his conversation with himself.
Bob has figured out I feed the geese, and he now occasionally will walk up to a pile of food I have put down for the geese and eat it. For any other bird, this is a crime worthy of severe biting and beating in the goose world. If a goose started eating another goose's pile of food, there would be one helluva beatdown and honking and feathers flying. But Bob is able to eat whomever's pile of food he chooses.
The geese are afraid of Bob the Autistic Duck, even though he is a quarter their size.
Bob will fixate on one pile of food. The first one he sees. He will walk past several other piles of food I laid down after the first one. Once he sees a pile, he sees no other piles. Bob will see me pouring food and come walking out of the pond as his wife flies away. Bob always leaves the pond in the same place and always walks the exact same path. Bob knows no other other way to get from Point A to Point B. If there are geese in Bob's path, Bob walks right up to and between the geese and heads for their food. The geese actually part for him.
Bob the Autistic Duck is King of the Pond, only he doesn't know it. He is too busy talking to himself.
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