Chapter 9

Canada Geese are called by [so many] blokes, birds,tweet, tweet, CANADIAN geese. I wonder why? It wasn't until recently that I learned to not say CANADIAN.

Don't ever treat a family of Canada Geese, with disrespect. If you come up to the goslings (baby C. geese) too quickly, the mother might attack you. I saw the mother of a brood of goslings bent down her head and raise her wings, like elbows up to the sky. Her beak was open wide and with a HISS she charged this toddler who ran to see the babies. Fortunately for that wee human his father was quicker than the mother Canada Goose. He snatched that child up before Mama defended her brood.

I saw a brood of goslings in the middle of a small country road once, the parents hissing and getting angry at anyone who decided to discuss the situation.

I once saw a Canada Goose cross a road, where the traffic speed was 50 mph. The goose was going, 1 mph. The car coming at this goose, went into the shoulder to get around this bird. The bird stood still andstarted discussing it.

What a confident bird! When they talk they HONK HONK HONK.

Flocks of Canada Geese travel overhead. They are a triumphant V in the sky, except... where they going? Why do Canada Geese live on the East Coast of the USA? Shouldn't they be in Canada?

Maybe they got lost, didn't have a map in the glove department (the V-car)... haha, joke.

One time, a pair of Canada Geese run across my roof and then leap into the air to fly. It was like bulls stamping across the ground. I live in a Mobile Home so whenever any bird or animal runs across my roof the sound is more ... obvious. Rain are bullets on this roof.

Saw a Canada Goose and a British Crow face-off over in Kensington Gardens in London. They both were standing sideways staring at each other, their legs bent. The Crow bent his head towards the Goose, the Goose responded by moving his head and body towards the Crow. The Crow then quickly and decisively moved his head and body AWAY from the Goose. Neither moved their FEET at all during this encounter. IT was a dance!

C. Goose is the only bird I've seen make a Crow - polite!

Chapter 8

If I'm going to talk about the seagull, brat boy, petulant sad child of the bird world, I think I want to do it in snatches. Why? The seagulls and I go back a long long way. When I lived in a rooming room house, old shack in the city, where there was more concrete than - life - the seagulls saved me. They would fly over Boston [which has its pockets of grass but not where I lived] and I would watch them in the blue sky. I would sit on my windowsill and listen to them cry. That's when I knew the gull was unique - his cry is that of a wounded child. Are they lost souls of children, or sad adults, who never made it to the "other side" and stayed her as junk angels? A seagull in the sky, when the sunlight is out, is a bird on fire. The light makes him ... bright, like a star.

On the beach, walking across the sand, sitting on the rocks, with a meal, or a snack, seagulls will find you. It's a mob thing, a group mind, yet the individuals in that group act very very different. Some will stand in front of you and scream. Others will walk back and forth, beak bent down to the ground, and harshly complain. Others will hover in the air above you, floating, treading water/air... ever been surrounded by seagulls? It's like being enveloped in a white heaven. Makes me laugh as I throw the bread up in the air, fling the piece of meat far into the crowd, hoping to reach the shy bugger in the back of the crowd. I always look for this misfits.

Standing in a parking lot, once, I threw popcorn up in a strong wind current, fierce wind. The wind whipped the popcorn across the parking lot. The cloud of seagulls hovering over my head whipped along with that popcorn, so fast, blink of an eye. A truck was going, slow down the side of the parking lot. The popcorn blew in front of the trunk, on that passage way (a road between two lots in a BIG lot) and the birds blew right in front of the trunk - HUNDREDS OF BIRDS. The truck stopped. Had to, while that mob got there popcorn. Oh I laughed, but disappeared quick. Wouldn't have blamed that poor driver for being angry! Didn't mean for that to happen!

I saw seagulls, in London, in Kensington Gardens, who wanted to get the bread thrown into the water so bad that they would land on top of the bird who was reaching for the water, pushing said bird INTO the water, to get that bread. Hard call that - I love the seagulls, but I didn't want the other birds to get drowned!

Finding Nemo - an animated film, has the best sequence of seagulls in action I've ever seen. Made me fall to the floor laughing, it was so ACCURATE. They find food, they are THERE! All different, but each individual having his own role in the mission - get the food