Thursday, January 23, 2014

Reckonings and Politically Smart Canada Geese?


After the snow storm, Canada geese return to Jackie Onassis Reservoir last night in Central Park.
"Baby, its cold, but we will prevail!"
New mayor of New York City, not as prepared for snow storm as Canada geese.  Unplowed streets outside Guggenheim Museum on Upper East Side of Manhattan last night 24 hours following storm.
Side streets of Upper East Side Manhattan appearing unplowed a full day after storm.
 An Eventual Day of Reckoning? 
.
"People are just being too emotional about the dolphins," says the fisherman.  "They want to protect them because they're cute and clever."
.
The above quote is from an Anderson Cooper news video covering the annual dolphin slaughter currently occurring in Japan.
.
.
It's particularly interesting because these are exactly the same words and argument some of us received when attempting to recently speak up for the 2,200 wild swans of New York slated to be "eliminated" by 2025.
.
The irony is that such argument occurred on the "New York Birders" facebook page -- a site one would presume to be in the corner of swans and other birds on a government slaughter list.
.
.
The fact is that in nearly every instance of people attempting to speak up for animal justice and advocating for protection over slaughter, accusations of "emotionalism" are sure to follow as well as attempts to write off legitimate grievances to the animal victims being "cute," "pretty" or character in a Disney film.
.
The only reason animal abusers are able to get away with such accusation and dismissal is because the animal victims cannot speak for themselves.
.
God help the human race the day scientists, researchers and documentarians are finally able to decipher animal language.
.
Such day is actually not that far off -- particularly for dolphins, whales, chimpanzees, elephants and many other species.
.
But, it is a day the human race should dread as with animals' abilities to communicate and actually be understood, will fall our rationalizations for brutalizing and massacring them.  
.
Canada Geese Smarter than New Mayor in Figuring Out Snow Storms?
.
Speaking of animal language and communications, among some of the most vocal animals are Canada geese.
.
Lacking high tech, scientific equipment, I personally am unable to decipher exactly what geese are saying to each other.  But over the past couple of months, I have been privy to what sounds like variable and highly complex "language" among the thousands of geese who either migrated through the Central Park (Jackie Onassis) Reservoir two months ago or have been wintering there over the past 5 to 6 weeks.
.
Though they may often appear as one big, random group of birds on the water, the geese are actually broken up into different and distinct family groups or flocks.  The flocks communicate with each other and this is especially true just prior to flying out somewhere or immediately upon flying into Reservoir.
.
Prior to each snow storm this winter, the geese have left the Reservoir, only to return a day or two later.
.
The geese returned to the Reservoir last night -- all two hundred of them!
.
No worse for the wear of the storm, they were nevertheless very chatty last night with much honking and communication occurring among members of different flocks.
.
Not sure what the geese were "discussing," but it might have been strategies for what to do when Reservoir freezes over (which it is in process of doing now).
.
But, regardless of what happens, I am confident the "honkers" will figure it out.
.
They already know what to do prior to arrival of severe storms -- though they don't tell me where they go.
.
Apparently the geese know better what to do during snow storms than our new Mayor. 
.
.
"Tale of Two Cities" indeed.  Photos taken last night of unplowed streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan a full 24 hours after snow storm suggest possible "payback" for lack of general support for deBlasio from this region of the city during election campaign.
.
Perhaps deBlasio should confer with Canada geese before the next snow storm. The geese don't play politics.  They just know what to do when chips are down and life becomes a matter of survival. 
.
And yes, the geese are always freely communicating.  Judging by their different voices and tones, it would not be surprising to learn they actually have names for each other. -- PCA
.
.
.
                                                ***********
                                                                
  

No comments: