Forget Dyson or Hoover.
The best vacuum cleaners are mallards.
It is funny to watch mallards as they quickly dart across the ground and swoop up any sunflower seeds or other treats present. They are extremely fast and proficient. Within mere seconds everything is gone and the grass and ground are spotlessly clean.
Were mallards to sweep up dust and dirt the way they do food, it would be tempting to bring a few home and throw out the expensive vacuum.
Geese on the other hand, are much slower, relaxed and seemingly discriminating when grazing on grounds for food.
I have seen geese refuse broccoli, lettuce and small bits of tomato whereas the ducks readily swoop them up.
Indeed, were survival in nature merely based upon speed and variance in diet, geese would starve and ducks would overrun the planet.
But, though different, geese and ducks actually coordinate and harmonize very well together.
Geese are thorough and clever in finding food. They are capable of digging deep in the grass, diving under the water and even working in concert with each other in the winter to wear down snow and find food in the ground.
Last winter for example, gaggles of geese spread out on the snow covered lawns of Harlem Meer in small groups. Each group appeared to "work" an area of snow by walking and pressing down with their huge feet. When at last, the ground was visible under the snow, the geese grazed and dug with their beaks to find grass and other food. (Some mallards later joined them.)
While most of Central Park was still covered in snow, there were parts of Harlem Meer lawns that appeared shoveled. Geese are, if nothing else, extremely patient and tenacious in finding food. (And in some cases, it seems they save park workers some shoveling work!)
Geese also possess excellent eyesight (or at least better than 65-year-old women).
Sometimes when going to the Meer, I initially don't see any geese on the water.
But, then I suddenly hear goose honks and see Buster and his gaggle flying across from some eastern part of the lake and zooming on to the embankment.
Buster can apparently see me from almost a mile away.
And so, while mallards may possess the speed, quickness and efficiency to find food even in winter, geese possess patience, tenacity and the ability to coordinate and work with each other to find it. This despite the geese's otherwise slowness and sometimes lazy, pondering ways..
The two types of waterfowl actually work very well together in finding and maintaining good sources of food, as well as insuring safety.
When lakes and ponds freeze over in winter, the geese (being larger and heavier than mallards) help to break through thin sheets of ice. But, once broken through, the mallards (being quicker and more energetic than geese) are better at keeping the pools of water open.
Since they seem to do more exploratory flying than geese, mallards are presumably better at finding ponds, lakes and other good locations for food.
But, the geese, being ever so wary and vigilant are good at engendering to the mallards a feeling of safety and protection.
So much so, that in the summer of 2010, two mother mallards at Harlem Meer routinely brought their ducklings at night to rest and sleep near the family of Canada geese.
As long as the duck families kept a respectable distance (usually about 5 to 10 feet away) from the goose family, Papa goose didn't mind.
All this is not to say that geese and ducks cannot survive without each other.
Obviously they can, just as humans could survive without vacuum cleaners, snow shovels, ice breakers and burglar alarms.
But, ducks and geese seem to be happier and better off when they do have each other (despite the occasionally bickering and territorial disputes). -- Just as we humans are better off with our convenience tools. -- PCA
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