What do geese know that we don’t?
The value of organization, for one. While the structure of the United States government, built over centuries, is being torn apart in a matter of months, we can still look up and see those tight Vs in the spring sky as flocks of Canada geese return north.
Though many geese never leave the Chicago area. A pair showed up at my feeder last week. Most of the birds we get are “LBBs” — little brown birds, sparrows, wrens, finches — shamed by the occasional red cardinal. My feeder has also been visited by everything from ducks to hawks, which of course are not interested in the birdseed, per se, but the wildlife below — bunnies and squirrels — scavenging what falls from various beaks.
The geese were nibbling at those paltry leavings when, big-hearted fool that I am, I went outside. The geese removed themselves to a safe distance and I grabbed a heaping scoopful of seed and tossed it on the ground. There. Bon appetit.
Have you ever watched geese eat? I hadn’t. One goose would plunge its face into the seeds, happily gobbling. The other wouldn’t. It stood guard, head on a swivel, looking left, then right. This went on for several minutes. Then they’d switch.
“Sentinel behavior,” said Michael P. Ward, an expert in conservation and bird behavior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Trying to detect predators. A lot of things want to eat birds, and they’re better working together, taking turns.”
Cooperation. Looking out for each other. Another practice that has fallen on hard times in the human world.
One doesn’t get a goose expert on the phone every day. I seized the opportunity.
That flying V formation? I assume it’s to keep the flock from getting separated.
“No, it’s actually aerodynamics,” said Ward. “The wind goes around the lead bird. The bird in in the very front of the V pays a cost.”
There is no designated head goose. They take turns at the point of the V. Again, sharing the burden.
I suggested more geese are sticking around Chicago due to global warming.
“That is definitely correct,” Ward said. “Winters in Chicago have become more mild. Geese learned to take advantage of human food. Geese are hanging out on people’s roofs. In Chicagoland, the majority of them are staying. Then you have birds that come down from farther north.”
The geese seem to weigh the chance of starving to death in Illinois — where snow can cover the fields they like to forage — to being shot by hunters in Kentucky.
“People see geese as this dumb bird that gets in my way, but if you actually start studying them, they make decisions and have strategies.” said Ward.
Geese are so smart that, to tag them, Ward’s team can no longer just drive up in a university van — geese recognize it and flee. He’s taken to having grad students disguise themselves as joggers — geese are used to ignoring joggers — in order to net them for tagging.
So here too, geese exceed humans, as being not easy to fool.
Thus they suffer the fate of the savvy of all species.
“They’re the most hated bird in Illinois,” said Ward. “Geese are the poster child for the human/wild bird conflict.”
Why? Several reasons. First, poop. An adult goose can turn out from one to three pounds of excrement. Every day.
“We’ve done surveys,” said Ward. “The vast majority of people in Illinois want to see more birds. They also don’t want geese in their backyard.”
I sure don’t, and worried, even as I was tossing birdseed before them, that I was inviting this pair of troublemakers to live in my yard. Geese are an enormous nuisance. A number of local businesses make a living chasing them off golf courses and such. But my duo seemed to tire of such easy pickings and moved on.
Geese are also aggressive. They will attack people, usually because they have a nest hidden nearby. In that sense, they are once again better than people, who will attack you for no reason, for the pure pleasure of lording themselves above you. Though there is good news — again, about geese.
“They can’t really hurt you,” said Ward. Yet another difference between geese and people, where humans come out worse. Because people can really hurt you, such as by crippling Social Security.
Geese stick together because doing so helps them to survive.
“Most of the time they cooperate because there are so many threats,” said Ward. “There are benefits to cooperating as opposed to trying to be the lone wolf.”
Geese know that instinctively. I’m afraid that’s a lesson Americans keep having to learn anew.