The Little Goose That Could

Yesterday, with the assistance of my Tmobile 3G dongle (no, they haven't paid me to say that, but if they did decide to pay me, I would say whatever they wanted) I spent the afternoon working outdoors. 

Specifically, I worked on an uncomfortable metal park bench under tree by the Thames at Kingston....Upon Thames.  They really knew what they were doing with that name. 

If you've ever been to Kingston, you'll know that down by the river, there are a plethora of bars, pubs, restaurants and cafés to eat, drink and be an asshole student at.

You'll also know that there are a large amount of gorgeous swans, Canadian Geese and many other kinds of ducks and water-loving birds that hang out, gracefully swimming along, begging for bread crumbs, and just doing their own thing. 

Walking over to my park bench, I spotted this little guy, just catchin' some sun:

Here he is, just being a Goose. Chillin'. 

About an hour into my workload, I suddenly notice another goose wandering around. He looks like a teenage goose - awkward, skinny, and not quite as full grown as the guy above. 

At first I thought he was just looking for food, and wandering around to see what was going on. Like a cat sussing out a new room they've never been in before. 

But then I noticed he started pacing up and down the section of river I was at, making little desperate honking noises, darting his skinny head up and down, looking through the cracks in the metal barricade that blocks drunken idiots, small children and over-zealous cyclists from falling in the Thames. 

He awkwardly waddled and paced up and down, up and down HOOOONK! HOOOOOONK! He just wanted the water, but couldn't fit trough the barricade. And couldn't get down to the steps that would allow him back to aquatic freedom, as it was blocked with people drinking on their lunch hour, toddlers chasing pigeons, and teenagers without a clue that this poor creature needed to get back to his home, and to his family.

This went on for an agonizing 5 minutes. HOOONK?! HOOOONK! HOOONK?? 

Back and forward. I stood staring, I wanted to pick him up! Tell him in Canadian to simply go to the steps, and walk past the threatening humans. Couldn't he fly over? 

He kept trying to squeeze through the gaps in the metal but would get stuck.

Finally, he pushed himself through the barricades with enough force to squeeze through. He got his flipper stuck, but managed to wrangle it free, and then get back to the river, safely.

This probably shouldn't have upset me so much, but it did. 

Because people don't watch their children properly while running around near a RIVER, and because grown adults don't know how to handle their drink, we need barricades on the river. The barricades are only in a specific spot, where the restaurants and bars are. And the only reason I can think they're there, is for the safety of humans.

But the wildlife and the swans and the geese around the Thames is part of its allure. 

But seeing that threatened, because of Man, and because of our need to build build build - I got a brief glimpse of that wildlife threatened. 

Yes, melodrama aside, the goose did make it back to safety. 

But to see a wild animal panic because it cannot get back to its habitat, because of something humans have done, and because humans were in its way, was horrifying. 

Comments

[Janie]

Urgh. I almost cried reading that. Poor little guy. He must have been so frustrated and confused.

[Olivia]

I haven't been to your blog in soooo long, maybe years. But I read this part and you hit the nail on the head:

"Because people don't watch their children properly while running around near a RIVER, and because grown adults don't know how to handle their drink, we need barricades on the river."

AMEN! Can I get five-thousand more AMENS!? Truer words have never been spoken. This is the thing I've always liked your blog for. Why can't everyone use logic the way you do?

Okay, I'm going to have to stop because just thinking about drunken idiots and mommies-who-think-the-world-revolves-around-their-child pisses me off. Keep being a badass, Cate!