They mingled between the geese in an act of community, making their statement that the lake was for everyone to enjoy. This was not a fair matchup for a fight, and I didn’t think that was what the much smaller ducks were trying to do anyway. A full-grown Canada goose weighs as much as 14 pounds while a mallard duck tops out at about 3½ pounds. I took a moment to try to understand in my human brain what I had just witnessed In the animal world. When the flapping ceased, the ducks quickly dispersed from the formation and retreated toward the direction from where they had come. In absolute unison, the geese opened their wings and flapped them rapidly against the surface of the lake, sending showers of water down upon the center all the ducks and geese. It honked a high-pitched succession of sounds and then an amazing act of aggression took place. The ducks and geese both stopped for a moment and it appeared they were enjoying each other’s company until the head goose turned to face them all.
They came close to brushing against the feathers of their much larger occupants of the lake. They came toward each other, silhouettes through the fog, in a surreal scene of nature’s forces proudly representing their species.Īs I watched with a rush of adrenaline moving through me, the ducks calmly swam between the goose formations and split the lines of three across. A thought came into mind that this was about to be a faceoff of ducks against geese, a confrontation for territorial rights to the lake. As they swam in single file toward the middle of the lake, a few more appeared until I counted a dozen. Suddenly, from the far left of the lake a few ducks appeared out of the fog. I expected them to take flight however, they lined up in a formation of threes across and swam toward the middle of the lake instead. It flapped its wings and honked loudly as if giving orders to the other geese that numbered about 20. One goose swam out in front and turned to face the others. The fog was thick and visibility was no more than 30 yards into the water.įrom the far right on the lake, a group of Canada geese appeared as silhouettes against the fog. The other day I stood fishing at my favorite lake. Children sit in a circle and one of them walks around tapping everyone on the shoulder while saying, “Duck, duck …” until he taps another and says, “Goose.” The goose then chases the “it” kid and tries to tag him before he gets to the space vacated from the circle by the goose. Duck, duck, goose is a child’s game that originated in Sweden.
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