Gooseing

Eagle Watcher is busy on the other side of the
island and Jack is busy cleaning and picking things up
as usual so I am going to write some letters to their
friends and mine.

This morning I had a large group of pelicans and
cormorants land right in front of the house on the
water in front of the beach. They were very close to
shore. I should have put it on video, but I had let
the batteries on the camera run down the other day and
never recharged it yet. That was the first time the
pelicans came so close this year. That was great to
see again. The black cormorants drive the small fish
to the surface for the white pelicans to catch. It
must be a good deal for both birds, but the pelicans
certainly are much bigger than the cormorants. The
cormorants get the advantage of flying behind a huge
pelican in the wind. There are many more cormorants
than pelicans so it must be a fair deal. I suppose it
is a little like the players and owners in the NBA or
NFL.

The Canadian geese are coming around and I have
plenty of video of them. I just open my bedroom
window, put the camera on a tripod, and let it run.
To get some background sound on the video, I have some
Napster tunes blasting on the computer. The geese can
hear the songs as they relax in the yard or mow the
grass. I try to play tunes that will give them a
balanced life.
For their spiritual life I play "Spirit in the Sky"
in case some of them get shot during hunting season.
Being shot and eaten by a good person might give the
goose a chance at eternal life. (It could also open a
whole new can of theological worms. What will happen
if part of the goose is eaten by a person who goes to
heaven and part is eaten by a person who goes to hell.
Where does the goose go on Big Easter?)
The geese really get into Norman Greenbaum's
"Spirit in the Sky". The start of the tune sounds
like geese honking. I never play the Eagle's version
of that song because a few of the geese have lost
relatives to eagles nesting on the island. What
chance does an eagle have for a good after life?
Eagles are not eaten by people. Therefore a goose
eaten by an eagle will simply become a white streak on
the side of a tree.

For those geese who do not believe in a life after
life or are just not ready to die yet, I play the Bee
Gee's "Staying Alive". I believe that is their
favorite melody in the fall, but it adds a spark in
the spring too. That song gets them hot and puts a
little extra wiggle in their waddle when I play it on
a Saturday night.
If the glad gander and his bride wander down to the
beach to take a drink and a dip under a May full
moon, I pump them up with Rod Stewards's "Tonight's
the Night". (Since the water is extremely cold, I
figure the big guy needs an extra boost for his
rocket.) Duck's Unlimited has given me a grant to
really crank up the volume when Steward wails, "Spread
your wings and let me come inside." (I don't have all
of that on video because the big birch tree in front
on the beach blocked the U.S. Border Patrol issue,
infra-red camera's view, but I did hear a few high
pitched, happy honks.) Action like that should warm up
the lake a few degrees.

After they have had time to get all their feathers
put back in order, I get them back to mowing by
playing "Green, Green Grass of Home by Elvis.
So goes life on the island. I see a couple of
geese swimming up to the beach. Time to get to work.
Have a good day.

                                         Pierre