ABC Wednesday Letter “G”

Site: Mrs. Nesbitt runs the ABC Wednesday.

So I was thinking about the letter “G”.

Then a few days ago this happened: Last Thursday actually!

This is a rather normal occurrence here; well anymore it seems to be. We are located along one of the many migratory paths of the Canada Geese. I suppose I might add I call them this since they are not residents of Canada per say. The vast majority of English speaking people call the goose that is large and has a black head—Branta canadensis—a Canadian Goose. However, its original name was a CANADA Goose. Oh gosh I sound like quite the snob, sorry ‘bout that! Blame it on the fact I am an educator…

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A teacher is: a person whose occupation is teaching.

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An educator however is: A person or organization with responsibility for developing, managing or delivering learning resources…

At one point in time the Branta canadensis was called a Canada Goose, because it was often seen flying towards Canada and living there. You could now just as easily call it a North American Goose since it is found all over North America and lives just about anywhere. It has adapted to live all across the US and into Mexico too.

So over the years, the name has changed to be Canadian Goose in English. Just like people in the 1600s used to call pumpkins "Pompions" and call vegetables "potherbs", we have changed what we typically call the Branta canadensis to Canadian Goose.

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Remember, the official name for any bird is its Latin name. So the "real" name for this creature is Branta canadensis. That's because the bird probably has 200 different names in 200 different languages, based on its colors, its sounds, its habitat or many other reasons. Birds get named after people, after habits, after all sorts of things. The Latin name is the same around the world for that bird.

At any hoot on with the story… We have raise domestic geese here for @ 25 years. When we first moved here and before we knew much about farming, the little we do…we tried to attract the Canada geese. To no avail I might add. But that turned out to be a good thing actually. @@@

We started out with @ 12 or so geese called Embden, beautiful white fowl. All was well until they began mating and we got gray geese, well greay and white… Ummmmmmmmm it seems that somewhere back in their line there was a story. Here is what we read and think happened. Toulouse had to have crossed with the Embden… @@ The neat part actually is that after these many years these guys must really like us because they continue to chase away the Canada geese. IT is almost like “HEYYA, this is our place so FLY AWAY.”

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These pictures are of one such day last week where a gaggle of Canada geese played in our creek. Some really good pictures I thought. Then our Geese came down and they “shouted” them away. For real, it was and continues to amaze me how animals are…

Embden Geese according to the records are not a very old breed, only being cited for around 200 years. The origins of this breed are thought to be from Northern Europe, in Holland and Germany. The eminent authority, Lewis Wright, was of the opinion that they originated from the town of Emden in Lower Saxony, Germany, although another source, namely Edward Brown, in ‘’Race of Domestic Poultry’’ believed that the breed was created by crossing the German White with the English White and then, by a process of careful selections, creating the goose as it is today. Others suggest that the English Embden’s great weight and size was produced by selective breeding with the Toulouse breed, which was then bred out leaving the large size of this breed. See we got rid of them ... are you not PLEASED????? @@@@@@@@ STreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch The Toulouse goose is a breed of domesticated goose derived from the Greylag Goose Anser anser. @@@@@@ As the name suggests, it originates from the area around Toulouse in southwest France. It is a large bird, with a weight of up to 9 kg.[1] The original grey coloured breed is a very old one and the name has been recorded back as far as 1555. The breed was first brought to the United Kingdom by Lord Derby in 1840, who imported some of them to England, and from then onwards the French Toulouse were used as breeding stock with the consequence that by 1894, English breeders had produced a massive bird. The 'Toulouse' in France although kept in greater numbers have never quite equaled such weights. The Canada Goose (Branta canadensis), also referred to as the Canadian Goose[1], belongs to the Branta genus of geese, which contains species with largely black plumage, distinguishing them from the grey species of the Anser genus. The species name, canadensis, is a New Latin word meaning "of Canada".

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Bottom line

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Our geese are FAMILY

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