Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: DickyD on May 25, 2010, 01:07:08 pm
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If you think looking after two or three children is stressful enough, spare a thought for this over-worked parent.
The Canada goose has been left in charge of 40 goslings on the Thames in Reading, with only one helper to lend a wing.
Although so-called geese 'creches' - where the offspring of different parents get mixed up - are fairly common, experts say this is one of the largest and most understaffed they have seen.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1280370/Canada-geese-left-charge-40-goslings.html#ixzz0owTVJg6j
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Very Nice Picture, even more undermanned than stated as there are actually 48 goslings. %% %%
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If you say so %)
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Hmm, 24 each, LESS than we expect a single person to control most days of the week. Wonder how the "Ducks" would do under the same legalistic constraints.
Regards Ian.
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there will be uproar when the goslings have to sit stats............ %%
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Glad you had to type that and not say it.
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I tried shaying that, itsh not eashy!! My wife shwiped me round the earole!
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Nice photo. But does anyone really like Canada geese? Where I live, alongside the Thames they are a real pest. They leave there droppings everywhere. They don't get on with the swans and seem to serve no useful purpose. I tried eating one. It was pretty awful and not an experience I wish to repeat. I would like to try eating swan, the Queen can't possibly want them all. Has enyone tried it?
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Nice photo. But does anyone really like Canada geese? Where I live, alongside the Thames they are a real pest. They leave their droppings everywhere.
And swans don't??? :o I actually like both varieties, but I don't live anywhere near either of them, so I don't have to put up with their mess.
To me as an Aussie, white swans are icons of Britain, alongside bluebells, wild growing daffodils and red London buses O0
We don't have white swans in Australia, only black ones.
Peter.
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I tried eating one. It was pretty awful and not an experience I wish to repeat.
Are but did you cook it first {:-{ :o
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tis a nice photo. its a pity some human parents cant take as good care of their offspring. having said that, canada geese are classed as a pest here. regular cullings carried out. especially in our area which is agriculture based. they love eating the crops.
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We don't have white swans in Australia, only black ones.
Didn't take long for the slick to get to you, good ole BP :}
Regards Ian.
I would like to try eating swan, the Queen can't possibly want them all. Has enyone tried it?
Bit like Golden Eagle (Or so I'm told)
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Here in Ontario, Canada geese are a bit of a pest. There is a proper hunting season for them. They're very territorial creatures and can be aggressive if there's something they really want. They proliferate our parks, which brings cries from both sides of the animal protection front. There's that side that wants rid of them, then there's that side that wants them protected, and indeed, feed them.
They don't all migrate south. If they can find enough food and open water they'll winter here. They're favourite food locations are corn (maize) fields after harvest. A lot of corn tends to get dropped from combines and grain wagons so the geese can can load up.
For hunting geese here in Ontario go to:
http://www.huntinontario.com/goose-hunting-ontario.html
John
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Peter,
You obviously have not travelled very far in Australia, as we actually have two states with white Swans....... :-)) :-))
Roy
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Witnessed a very odd incident while at the lake the other day. There was an Indian gentleman round the other side of the lake with his child feeding the geese. Every time a goose came up out of the water, he'd kick it >:-o
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I remember a strange call we got a few years ago of two men shooting birds on Holy Island in Northumberland.
Two of us went out in a patrol car and waited on the A1 near Alnwick and sure enouth here comes the car seen
on the island. We pulled it and after a search found about 6 swans several geese, pigeons and just about everything
that flies. They got locked up and it cost them a fortune in fines - Their occupation - proprietor of a Chinese
restaurant in Durham and his brother. Wonder what they would have been described as on the menu
Pugwash
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Peter,
You obviously have not travelled very far in Australia, as we actually have two states with white Swans....... :-)) :-))
Roy
I checked on Google, and there is a colony of white swans at Northam, in Perth WA, descended from birds brought in by early settlers. Apparently it's the only place in WA where a breeding colony has established itself. Personally, even though I have travelled in most states and territories except the NT, I have never seen a white swan in Australia outside a zoo.
Peter.
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We have a breeding group of wild Black Swans on the Union Canal near Edinburgh, Scotland. Escapees I presume. {:-{
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Nice photo. But does anyone really like Canada geese? Where I live, alongside the Thames they are a real pest. They leave there droppings everywhere. They don't get on with the swans and seem to serve no useful purpose. I tried eating one. It was pretty awful and not an experience I wish to repeat. I would like to try eating swan, the Queen can't possibly want them all. Has enyone tried it?
I happen to like them, in name only {-), several reasons to hate geese, 1. they taste real greasy when cooked, had one for Christmas once, yuck 2. they are very territorial and Noisy, my last flat before moving here was along the banks of the Grand River in Southern Ontario, and they'd keep you up all night, and 3. if you golf, they drop all over some course, especially on the greens, and your score goes right out the window. But they are our name sake so, I say up the Canada Goose, I'd check them for Biometric cards, make sure their not getting any benefits they are not entitled too. O0
Robert
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We have a breeding group of wild Black Swans on the Union Canal near Edinburgh, Scotland. Escapees I presume. {:-{
Perhaps they are criminals and we deported them, a sort of reverse deportation - sending some convicts back....220 years later {-) {-)
Peter.
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Actually Arrow5, it seems you are correct. I've just checked Wikipedia and found the following entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Swan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Swan) which includes the following quote -
The black swan is also very popular as an ornamental waterbird in Western Europe, especially Britain, and escapes are commonly reported. As yet the population in Britain is not considered to be self-sustaining and so the species is not afforded admission to the official British List, but the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust have recorded a maximum of nine breeding pairs in the UK in 2001, with an estimate of 43 feral birds in 2003/04 (though that is undoubtedly an under-estimate given the level of monitoring undertaken).
A colony of black swans in Dawlish, Devon has become so well associated with the town that the bird has been the town's emblem for forty years
Just some trivial information which you are probably wondering how you have managed to live without knowing %) %%
Peter.
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Thanks Peter, I just dont know how we could have survived much longer without knowing that %). I first came across the Union Canal group as I approached the Ratho moorings at dusk and thought my night vision had gone into reverse or negative until I realised what they were. Nice waterside pub there FYI. Which leads me nicely on to the slightly off-topic question...what Aussie beer has a Swan logo ? {:-{
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I know this one, Swan Draught. :-))
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I remember a strange call we got a few years ago of two men shooting birds on Holy Island in Northumberland.
Two of us went out in a patrol car and waited on the A1 near Alnwick and sure enouth here comes the car seen
on the island. We pulled it and after a search found about 6 swans several geese, pigeons and just about everything
that flies. They got locked up and it cost them a fortune in fines - Their occupation - proprietor of a Chinese
restaurant in Durham and his brother. Wonder what they would have been described as on the menu
Pugwash
You're fortunate the local constabulary did something about it. Their brethren are in proliferation over here. Their favourite sport is fishing. They'll fish anything anywhere regardless of the rules or season. If it has fins, its gone. The local game wardens (which are few to be sure) turn a blind eye to them (not politically correct to give a fine to an immigrant) and the locals get nicked instead. There has been quite a number of them end up in the drink through a process known local as "ni**er tipping". The locals take the rap there too, for assault.................and the stocks keep depleting.
John
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Swan Lager!
Takes me back
Drank quite a lot of that in Freemantle and Perth
when we visited in 1968 on HMS Eagle
Aah memories!
Ned
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Give those men a prize :-)) O0
Swan lager is a Western Australian beer, which we don't see much of on this side of the country.
I'm glad you liked that Arrow5, it's marvellous what you can find on the internet :-)
Peter.