Learning Goose

I’ve had many different sorts of poultry in the past, as well as budgies once, so I’m not totally unlearned in Bird. Goose, however, has its own nuances and I’m beginning to learn them.

It’s exceedingly obvious when a gander gives an alarm – Hannibal’s quite capable of waking me at oh-dark-hundred when he goes off because a mouse intruded in their shed, for instance! They also have some gentle communication honks and chucks and Hannibal produces a wheezy huffing that seems to be honking that doesn’t quite have enough force behind it; I think it’s a reassuring-my-flock noise. Lucy chuckles more than she honks and I haven’t heard her hiss, while Hannibal is expert in Hiss.

I’m starting to distinguish levels of threat and display in Hiss now. Putting the head down near the floor with a quiet hiss is the first stage, then that escalates to head and neck out straight with loud prolonged hiss. The next stage is to ruffle and shuffle the feathers of wings and back while hissing, head and neck still level. Stage four, spread wings halfway and advance on the enemy, hissing loudly and beak half-open ready to bite. If anything is in the way, bite it, grip on hard and whack it with flapping wings.

I don’t know if there’s anything above that yet.

This evening they didn’t want to go to bed so I pushed them by standing as close as I could with Hannibal at Hiss Level 3. I tried upping the ante on my side by flapping my arms while hissing back, but apparently I wasn’t very convincing. Eventually I took my coat off and flapped that, which got them moving with a lot of honking and hissing.

Eventually we’ll have that fence up to prevent them going on the road and then I won’t have to worry about pushing them into their shed before they’re ready – they can stay out until twilight if they want.

The horses have been good, though most of this afternoon they decided being inside with hay beat being outside with grass, so they came in and occupied the stables firmly, though mostly politely. I don’t know what Abe’s crime was but Poppy deliberately followed him into George’s stable so she could kick him – much to George’s consternation, since he was in there first! Dancer, meanwhile, was trying to make friends with George over his stable wall with much snapping of infant jaws – horse-speak for ‘only a baby, please be kind’ – which he was.

The herd marching order still seems to be Poppy, Dancer, George, Abe. Interesting!