This is the thread where people express fondness for Gooses

http://www.universalhub.com/images/2007/geese2007-07-13.jpg

I waaaaaaalking herrrree.

Dud for golfers.

http://www.maxwaugh.com/images/zoo02/geese.jpg

Egyptian gooses.

And bollocks to golfers.

egyptian gooses are the highest recorded species of animal, reaching something absolutely ridiculous like 12 miles. that's nearer space than earth.

That's an amazing "factoid". Cheers Louis.

http://www.unf.edu/groups/spinnaker/archives/2006/03-15/images/pics/GeeseFRONT.jpg

My housemate's kinda-sorta-maybes-onn/off girlfriend came to stay last weekend bringing with her a stuffed one of these

http://www.radioryedale.co.uk/pictures/Greylag_goose.jpg

that she had stitched from scratch. well impressive wot with no pattern or nuffin. i somehow adopted it and called it Goswald.

The furthest I can stretch in the direction of fondness would be a healthy respect or possibly, on a good day, admiration. Fondness is too warm an emotion for me to muster up.

Well I don't want to deter people so any chance the thread title could be changed to "express a healthy respect or possibly on a good day, admiration" for?

I'm a reformed ornithologist, but I can still tell you the difference between Brent, Barnacled and Bar-Headed....

DELICIOUS when roasted.

I am still mad about that dead-paté-goose pic someone posted on that entreé thredd.

Geese are amusing little bastards. So elegant looking, but so sour.

That's why I am so fond of 'em. They clearly don't give a fuck and if I think they're gonna get out of my way while I'm mosying tru the park I'm sorely mistaken.

A goose ran me off a beach in Bowen Island, British Columbia, so I can do the respect thing, but affection is a trickier concept.

Gooses, you alright by me.

Geese are possibly my favorite animals.

i should tell my grandma about this thread, she has a whole geese-themed motif goin on in her house.

My grandparents had a few geese that hung around their farm when I was younger. We were always warned to stay away from them; that they would ATTACK if PROVOKED. Which, of course, makes them awesome.

I thought this thread was about enjoying being goosed.

http://www.wwt.org.uk/research/images/GreyLag2.jpg

"Yeh? Wot?"

I never used to like geese until I was living in York and had to walk along the river to work everyday, then I grew to love them, esp. seeing what good parents they are.

I really like how the goslings illustrate the links between birds and dinosuars coz they really do like like tiny dinosaurs.

Are guard geese a feature of Minnesota or something? Even in the suburbs you find the occasional pair ready to stalk kids the fuck out of a back garden.

My uncle used to rear Canada goslings back when they were endangered so for at least five years we'd take delivery of 15 of the buggers every spring. Cue ten years later when the back yard became part of the migration pattern so 200 geese would arrive, eat, shit copiously, and leave on their way south. My cousin cals them GEEFS to this day.

That sounds uuhhmazing, apart from the copious shitting obv, like something out of Fly Away Home:

Speaking of which... Best goose film evuh:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NKcQigkBnU4

with a nice Be Good Tanyas accompaniment.

St Werburgh banished geese from the isle of Sheppey.

Goose poo might have come into play there. It is vile stuff.

Man, why is no-one mentioning the noise? I seriously don't think there is any more potent sound in nature. Being anywhere where there is a large number of them gathered at dusk or at dawn is just so damn wonderful, all that mad ecstatic honking going off in the half-light, seeing these big beautiful creatures dropping down in streams from the sky. Haha, I love these bastards so much and if you know John Martyn's 'Small Hours', you'll know what I'm talking about.

Also, the goose sequences in Winged Migration are incredible.

The noise = I know I'm home.

This Noise?

St Werburgh banished geese from the isle of Sheppey

what is it with saints and their banishing animals shit?

http://dvd.filmland.dk/graphics/pictures/3245_full.jpg

what is it with saints and their banishing animals shit?

What is it with organised religion and intolerance? Whole nuvver can o' worms. Which gooses like.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Anser_cygnoides-Beijing.jpg

That is a swan goose, Anser cygnoides, domesticated in Asia and sadly endangered in the wild.

According to wikipedia: "By 6–8 weeks of age, the knob is already pronounced enough that it can be used for sexing."

*salutes swan goose*

HONK HONK

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1116/527526500_157626f3f9.jpg

I love geese

Anyone read The Once and Future King by TH White? Implausible thought it may sound there's a marvellous passage where King Arthur gets transformed into a goose.

Noes, but i gonna.

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/onblack.php?id=344900665&size=Large

Beautiful feathery bastards.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/165/344900665_4815c2dcb4_b.jpg