The Power of Poop
Last Sunday I posted one panoramic picture of three Canada Geese swimming in the lake as the main subject. This brought up a conversation with a friend referring to the C. Geese, she expressed her dislike for them but she did not enter into more details as of to know why she wasn’t fond of them, however she mentioned that after seeing them so nicely portrayed in my picture she changed her mind and loved them. My reply was mostly in reference of me not liking them either but several years before I moved to Georgia. I used to live in New Jersey and played golf regularly with some of my friends. Most golf courses in our area were constantly used as a migratory Canada Geese hangout and the greens were pelted with tons of geese poop. It was real unpleasant to be stepping on poop all the time.
I got another message from my friend immediately expressing her amusement and cause for laughter reading my replay, then she told me that the reason why she didn’t like them was because in the town where she lives there a nice park that gets covered with tons of C. Goose poop every year and that makes it disgusting!
– I live in Georgia now and I don’t play golf anymore. So I don’t have any beef against the Canada geese now. But let me tell you an anecdote that happened to me at a golf course once, this is a true story.
“Four of us friends were out playing golf one morning, while we walked and played we used to converse and laugh a lot, it was having fun hitting the links. In parts of this golf course there are water streams not very wide or deep but made good part of the course landscaping design. When players get to those points there are nice wooden bridges built as aesthetic objects and also as a way to cross to the other side of the stream.
– In the surrounding areas you can see geese pecking on the grass some other are preening or simple standing. We continue our game until we got about 30 feet before the stream and is my turn to hit the ball, make my pick of the iron number and get my striking position. I proceed and strike the golf ball with force in direction to the flag, the ball is now in the air when suddenly a goose flies across the path of the speeding ball, this bird comes out of nowhere already high in the air we look at this scene like in slow motion, the ball hit the goose square in the middle and we see it barreling down into the stream. We all run to the stream ditch and we see the bird emerge from the water and take off flying! We sigh of relief and we look at each other and smile.
My three friends told that story every time that we got together or with other friends at any reunion.
Moral:
“I learned that it sounded stupid to shout “duck!, duck!” to a goose and perhaps that was the turning point to be a bird protector!”
I just hope that you won’t use the story against me! It was an accident, I swear!
Text and photographs © HJ Ruiz – Avian101
H.J. Ruiz - Avian101 
Great story and photos. Thank you!
Thank you Ann! 🙂
Too, too funny! 🙂
Thank you M.! 🙂
When playing golf, it is always nice to get a ‘birdie’ once in awhile to help your score. 🙂
I marked that birdie in my score sheet! 🙂 Thanks Bob! Good one!
Oh my, H.J, your story made me laugh!! You have no idea how badly I needed that today! Thank you for sharing your story. I love the towhee photos today, nice to get a shot of the female. We see males here but the females have a tendency to stay hidden. Thank you for the smile! 🙂
The pleasure is all mine! Thank you Amy! 🙂
A really funny story and good photos too. It’s not only Canada geese that poo everywhere. The Greylags that visit our garden each year make such a mess of our grass it’s unbelievable and someone in the family is sure to tread it into the house!
Everywhere you have some kind of bird that migrate in large flocks and all throughout their trajectory they leave a trail of poop. Last year I was in a City where they have so many pigeons that they are everywhere and poop rains down onto cars or people. Lets be grateful that elephants don’t fly! 🙂
Thanks for sharing Clare.
BIRD-MURDERER !!! R O T F L !!! I’m not a bit surprised that this story has lasted: I’m sure it will be carried down for several generations, HJ ! 🙂
On another topic: how come the Eastern Towhee’s female is better-looking than the male ? Isn’t it always the other way ’round ?
I knew that you’d be the only one with the huzpah to all me that name. I exposed myself and you took a shot! I knew it!
Ref; Towhee – Not to my eyes, the male is better looking! Really! 🙂
Pfuh ! That female Towhee’s tail alone makes her better-looking.
As for you doing your best to kill the goose, I thought it was absolutely hilarious … but it must have actually been quite alarming at the time, and you must have felt awful for a moment or two, HJ …
Yes of course, but the goose flew away, and I imagine that another goose is trying to hatch my golf ball! 🙂
Did you get a birdie at that hole HJ?
I wrote my score card as a birdie shot! My friends made sure that everybody knew about that “birdie” incident! 🙂
Funny anecdote!
Thanks Cynthia! 🙂
Funny! 🙂 And love the Eastern Towhees, HJ!
Thank you Donna! 🙂