I was once threatened by a swan. If you think a goose is nasty, you ain’t seen nuttin. I was trying to set up a tent and the swan was wandering through the tent grounds with lady swan and and several cygnets. So he perceived me as threatening them. I fended him off with a tentpole (they have an incredible range with their neck). Eventually we managed to grab the cygnets and toss them over a short cliff into a lake below. They swam off and the parents seemed to forget about them as soon as they were out of sight. Later saw momma, poppa, and babies all swimming contentedly in the lake.
That’s why you have to surprise them. Never goose them until they are looking the other way.
My wife and I were walking in a public park w couple of months ago when we were attacked by a goose/gander. Apparently we had gotten too near its nest (wherever that was).
Basically, it attacked my wife’s purse (because that was the closest thing in its vicinity). I attacked back with the only weapon at hand - my foot.
Let me just state that when this sort of thing happens the one thing that you are not thinking is “I wonder if it’s legal for me to defend myself?”.
I worked for a while at the corporate headquarters of a large grocery wholesaler. They had a nice 3 story building built into a hillside, with a large brick patio outside the cafeteria facing the shore of a lake, with about 30 acres of foods & marshland off to the side, with many walking trails thru it, including up to the remains of a pioneers cabin on a hilltop. It was great to go walking on the trails during lunch break, or schedule meetings at a picnic table in the woods overlooking the lake.
But …
Among the many wildlife species in this preserve were … Canada Geese. They nested there. Usually quite tolerant of humans going by on the trails – except in early summer, when the goslings were hatched and starting to move around. Then the ganders became very protective & territorial. People could get trapped, with a gander fiercely guarding the trail back to the office. There were a few bites requiring first-aid treatment each year.
After a while, the company took to posting a notice on the bulletin boards and circulating memos & emails telling that hatching season was here and warning people about attacks on the trails.
If you’re attacked by a goose
Don’t even think of a truce
The concepts a strain
For an avian brain
Just kick it (it is not abuse)
“I used to be an adventurer, until I took a beak to the knee.”
Your grocery wholesaler set up a 30-acre combined all-you-can-eat food bar and nature preserve for the employees? Where do I apply to work there?
A few years ago, I was in a small boat fishing at a club I belonged to.
Well, I was on one of the remote lakes and off in the distance I saw two swans. I thought to myself “how cool is that, let’s go get a closer look”…
So, I turned my trolling motor on and started making progress towards them. Much to my surprise these those two swans started heading towards me !!!
Sure enough, we met in the middle of the lake and boy oh boy were those swans PISSED. Somehow they managed to stand on liquid water and spread/flap their wings at me. Those damn swans split up an attacked me from both sides of my boat. My “boat” was a 9 foot long plastic heap that had maybe 10" of clearance to the water, so I was definitely in danger. The noise those flapping wings made was horrendous and I was SCARED. I eventually put my head down, twisted the throttle on my trolling motor to high and fled away.
Of course in retrospect they must of had a nest nearby, but their response was way over the top IMO.
Finally, I’ll never forget the size of the birds close up. Especially their webbed feet. I mean each of their outstretched feet were much larger than say my outstretched hand…
.
So… Having successfully – and fatally – fended off an attack, can you eat it?
Or is it like hitting a deer, where you’re not allowed to?
Let me put it this way : you know how people sometimes joke that cats were once worshipped as gods in Egypt and they never forgot ? Well, geese and swans were once 20 meter tall, weighed 50 tons, had names like Tyrannosaurus Rex and terrified everybody in a five miles radius. And they’re bloody nostalgic about those days.
In MI you can. You have to get a special permit. Friends and I once stopped to assist after a car in front of us hit a deer. Another car behind us also stopped. The driver was shaken but OK; the deer was down for good. We drove home a few minutes away to get a knife & call the DNR who told us the process.
When we returned, the deer had been removed (evidence in the snow was conclusive.). Since it was out of sight, no doubt it was the car behind us. Turns out I knew the driver; an Ann Arbor musician who’d had the local hit, “eggs over easy hash browns and you.” I hope he enjoyed the venison!
I’ve always managed to avoid dangerous encounters with geese, despite the mating pair that regularly nested right by the path from driving lot to the entry where I worked. I’m often pretty oblivious when walking a regular path (as a kid I once walked right into a truck parked in our driveway. What’s worse, my sister saw it.)
But it’s usually pretty easy to spot a menacing goose and skirt around.
In my limited experience…
Wild geese have never seemed aggressive or dangerous. I’m sure they COULD be, were I to trespass on their turf, but as long as you give them plenty of room, they’re generally not looking for a fight.
The dangerous geese are the ones that have gotten used to people, and who have learned that people often have food for waterfowl. Even the hungriest ducks are fairly mellow and polite, but geese can get very aggressive when they suspect a nearby person has a bag of bread crumbs or something like it.
They generally won’t hurt you, but a swarm of geese that thinks you’re carrying yummies may swarm you and start packing at your shoes or lower legs to get your attention. Little kids may get scared to death when that happens.
Geese in a secluded mountain lake are not as likely to bother you as geese at a pond in a city park.
Pretty sure geese can fly faster than I can run.
this includes Canada Geese, for some goddamned reason.
Well, no sane person goes near Canada geese, because you’d have to wade through mountains of poop to get there.
Only if you are a third dan expert in Savpaté…
I can get down with that…
Mynd you, gøøse bites Kan be pretti nasti…