The Goose Is Cooked

By Jim Casey

• January 17, 2018

This Big Bird is the fastest slow moving animal I have ever seen.

I’ve been trying to cook this goose for two years. It’s the fastest slow moving animal I have ever seen. If I approach from the left, immediately upon entering her field of view, she flies to the right. If I approach from the right, she’s gone just as quickly to the left. This morning I went out back thinking I’d try one more time with the snow to make a good backdrop. I had the camera pointed where I expected she’d be, and as soon as she could see me, off she went. Actually, she seemed a little slower than normal today because I might have seen her an instant sooner, but because of the snow, she was totally camouflaged. I had the camera set on fully automatic and didn’t have time to do anything but point and shoot, and of course, it’s not the perfect shot.

I think this is one of the birds that I did photograph late at night once before and which appear in another article, [ Blue Herons ], and on a previous TOCC.tv cover. I guess it is a Blue Heron, but this one is a loner as opposed to the three featured in the previous articles. There have been two other types of large long legged birds in the area, one has a brown motif and looks about this same as this one. The others are white and I think they are strays from the Whooping Cranes known to gather at Wheeler Wildlife Refuge. I have seen some of the white crane juveniles nearby lately also.

This page has an associated TOCC TV cover

As it boils down, this Blue Heron gets away nearly every time because it has eyes in the back of it’s head. The saying goes that birds of a feather flock together. But don’t be fooled, different kinds of birds look out for each other too. This photo is of what I now refer to as the “rat bird” because the little thing went crazy toady sounding the alarm as I first started looking for the big bird. I’m sure that’s why the Blue Heron is always on the ready and takes off immediately, if not sooner, whenever I’m attempting to get a shot.

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© 2018 – Jim Casey
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By

Jim Casey • January 17, 2018
Photography

I’ve been trying to cook this goose for two years. It’s the fastest slow moving animal I have ever seen. If I approach from the left, immediately upon entering her field of view, she flies to the right. If I approach from the right, she’s gone just as quickly to the left.

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