Canada geese

by Roland D. Hallee

Sometime between 5 and 5:30 a.m., a few weeks ago, I was unceremoniously reminded the season on Canada geese had begun in Maine. It’s rather startling when you’re awakened from a sound sleep with the clapping of gun fire. For a second, I thought I was back in Vietnam. There was either a lot of hunters, or they were bad shots.

Hunters had positioned themselves in a cove just below from where our camp is located and the rapport from the shotguns sounded like it was right under our bedroom window.

The Canada goose is a wild goose which is native to arctic and temperate regions of North America, having a black head and neck, white patches on the face, and brownish-gray body. (For your edification, the proper name of the bird is Canada Geese, and not Canadian Geese.)

The black head and neck with the white “chinstrap” distinguishes the Canada goose from all other species of goose. They are generally 30 – 43 inches long with a 50 to 71-inch wingspan. The male usually weighs 7 – 14 pounds, and can be very aggressive in defending its territory. The female looks virtually identical to the male but only smaller, and has a different “honk.”

The species, native to North America, breeds in Canada and the northern United States in a variety of habitats. Its nest is usually located in an elevated area near water such as streams, lakes, ponds and sometimes on a beaver lodge. Its eggs are laid in a shallow depression lined with plant material and down.

By the early 20th century, over-hunting and loss of habitat in the late 19th century and early 20th century had resulted in a serious decline in the numbers of this bird in its native range. The Giant Canada goose subspecies was believed to be extinct in the 1950s, until, in 1962, a small flock was discovered wintering in Rochester, Minnesota. With improved game laws and habitat recreation and preservation programs, their populations have recovered in most of their range.

In recent years, Canada goose populations in some areas have grown substantially, so much so that many consider them pests (for their droppings, the bacteria in their droppings, noise and confrontational behavior). They have a tendency to attack humans when they feel themselves or their goslings to be threatened. First, the goose will stand erect, spread its wings and produce a hissing sound. Next, the goose will charge. They will either bite or attack with their wings.

The problem is partially due to the removal of natural predators and an abundance of safe, man-made bodies of water (such as golf courses, public parks and beaches, and in planned communities).

Like most geese, the Canada goose is naturally migratory with the wintering range being most of the United States. Although a migratory bird, some flocks in Canada choose not to migrate, even during the winter, if food (such as human leftovers) is constantly available throughout the season.

The calls overhead from large groups of Canada geese flying in V-shaped formation signal the transitions into spring and autumn.

By the way, should you see Canada geese flying north this time of year, it doesn’t signal early spring. Some will winter in this area, fly down the Kennebec River, looking for food, then fly back north to their nesting site.

Canada geese, Branta canadensis, are primarily herbivores, although they sometimes eat small insects and fish. Their diet includes green vegetation and grains, such as wheat, beans, rice and corn. When in the water, they feed from silt on the bottom, and aquatic plants such as seaweeds. In urban areas, they are also known to pick food out of garbage bins.

Properly prepared, the meat of Canada geese is very tasty. I had some once at a wild game dinner, and, after being awarkened in the early-morning hours by those hunters, I sure wouldn’t mind having one on my dinner plate.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

Who is the all time leader in career touchdowns for the New England Patriots?

by Roland D. Hallee

Isn’t it amazing how when you begin a conversation with someone, inevitably, it always leads to the weather. What would we do if we didn’t have the weather to talk about. Maybe some of us would never speak.

Whether you’re at the supermarket, church, or just bumping into a friend on the street, the conversation always goes something like, “What a nice day,?” or “boy it sure is hot enough.” Get the idea?

Well, the other day, a colleague and I started talking about whether this recent stretch of weather constituted an “Indian Summer.” Which prompted me to think, “what really is an Indian summer and what determines whether we have one or not?”

An Indian summer is unseasonably warm, dry and calm weather, usually following a period of colder weather or frost in the late autumn, in September, October or early November. The Old Farmers Almanac describes it as taking place between November 11 and 20. It states, “During true Indian summer, the atmosphere looks hazy or smokey, and the weather is calm and dry.”

Modern ideas on what an Indian summer constitutes vary, but the most widely accepted value for determining whether an Indian summer is occurring is that the weather must be above 70 degrees for seven days after the autumnal equinox (September 21).

The term Indian summer has been used for more than two centuries. The origin of other “Indian”phrases are well-known as referring to North American Indians, who prefer to be called Native Americans, or, in Canada, First Nations. The term Indian summer reached England in the 19th century, during the heyday of the British Raj in India. This led to the mistaken belief that the term referred to the Indian subcontinent. In fact, the Indians in question were the Native Americans, and the term began use there in the late 18th century.

Indian summer is first recorded in Letters From an American Farmer, a 1778 work by the French-American soldier-turned-farmer J. H. St. John de Crevecoeur: “Then a severe frost succeeds which prepares it to receive the voluminous coat of snow which is soon to follow; though it is often preceded by a short interval of smoke and mildness, called the Indian Summer.”

There are many references to the term in American literature in the following hundred years or so. In the 1830s Indian summer began to be used figuratively, to refer to any late flowering following a period of decline. It was well enough established as a phrase by 1834 for John Greenleaf Whittier to use the term that way, when in his poem Memories,” he wrote of “The Indian Summer of the heart!.”

Or, Thomas DeQuincey, in a republishing of Bentley’s Works of Thomas DeQuincey, 1855, wrote: “An Indian summer crept stealthily over his closing days.”

Also, in his story The Guardian Angel, Oliver Wendell Holmes mentions “an Indian summer of serene widowhood.”

As a climatic event it is known throughout the world and is most frequently associated with the eastern and central states of the U.S., which have a suitable climate to generate the weather pattern. For example, a wide variation of temperature and wind strength from summer to winter.

Why Indian? Well, no one knows but, as is commonplace when no one knows, many people have guessed.

Some say it was from the prairie fires deliberately set by Indian tribes; from raids on European settlements by Indian war parties, which usually ended in autumn; or, in parallel with other Indian terms, it implied a belief in Indian falsity and untrustworthiness and that an Indian summer was a substitute copy of the real thing.

But my grandfather, who could spin a yarn with the best of them, had the best I’ve ever heard.

It seems an Indian chief was concerned about a hunting party that was delayed in returning from a late summer gathering of meat for the winter. The year had been an extremely difficult one and the tribe needed the buffalo, deer and turkey meat for their winter consumption, and the hides for clothing and shelters. Fearing the crops in the fields would go to waste before the braves returned to harvest, the chief sat at his campfire and began to feverishly smoke a pipe, and did so for days, until the air was filled with smokey, warm air. Once the hunting party made its return, the air was still warm enough to gather the crops that had not been damaged by frost, that the chief feared would be destroyed by the impending cold weather. By warming the air with the smoke from his pipe, the chief, essentially, extended the summer, and saved the crops.

Makes sense to me.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

With the possibility this year of an all New York World Series (Yankees and Mets), when was the last time two teams from the same city faced off in the fall classic?