Time: September,
23, 2014 - Tuesday 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Place: Taiwanese
Presbyterian Church of Washington
(華府基督教長老教會)
7410
Beedwood Rd., Derwood, MD 20855
Speaker: Former
TASS Official Photographer-楊友垣
Bio
- He served the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1985 – 2001 as
mathematical statistician and retried in 2001. Prior to the USDA, he served the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as mathematical statistician from 1965 –
1985.
He graduated form Biometry Section, Department of Agronomy, the
National Taiwan University in 1954.
Synopsis: Geese
and humans are completely different animals. The photo journey shed some light
where the similarities are shared through the lenses of his four-year photos.
Summary:
Migration –
1.
The Canada geese summered in northern North America and flew south when the
cold weather arrived. Sometimes
they flew in flocks with the impressive aerodynamic V formations. Sometimes, they flew alone. I do not know the reason. “This shot
was especially rare because they were flying toward my direction where I was
shooting.”
2.
The timing of migration is unknown to me.
Some Canada geese have become so adaptable to local vegetation and
weather that they are the permanent residents of parks, golf courses and suburb
developments.
-Note- Around September/October, hundreds and
thousands of Canada geese gathered around Maryland Eastern Shore ready to
migrate to warmer regions in the south.
3.
Canada geese are protected under federal and state laws in U.S. No hunting is
allowed on state park properties.
“They are happy and free to go without restriction. Sky is the limit. In retrospect, it took me (the speaker) almost 13
years to become the U.S citizen, kept plugging away and studying hard to find the
job where the competitive workforce led me in the field, when white and African
Americans were reluctant to accept.”
Habitat & Lifecycle –
1.
They only eat certain plants
– grass, agricultural crops and mostly alfalfa. “Observe carefully for this picture, strangely to see this
goose only eats this piece of grass but not the other.”
2.
They would always keep
pruning and cleaning their feather.
After eating, they would also exercise and enjoy the leisure music time
together as a family. The family
groups stay together until mating season.
The male geese would claim as the heads and the superior figures while
they protect and dominate over other groups.
3.
They not only mate for life –
male, slightly larger in size, would court the female bird, who would chase and
swim in tandem with him.
Sometimes, the male bird would fight against another intruder during the
breeding time to defend his territory, and mate. Once the courting is over, the male gasps for air with the
tongue sticking out – mission accomplished - The female would sit on the nest
for hatching. They are programmed
to this cycle by nature. It’s just
like the human behavior.
4.
Family building – The male
stands watch over the little ones and his mate proudly. Both of the parents would take the
goslings to a safe area where the parents, either male or female - it’s hard to
tell – share the responsibility of making the nest, tugging the vines with
repeated trips, and feeding and caring for the young.
5.
The greetings from the
neighbor – the turtle.
6.
Five little goslings swim
with the parents – one leading the way while the other tending behind. – “I do
not know which gender of the parents in this formation.”
7.
Independent life - The
grown-up goslings start to swim solo in the pond without parents as
chaperones. But, they still miss
them. While the older geese tend
the younger siblings swimming across the other side of the bank, they would
wait patiently for them to land safely in the water. Searching around the circle in the pond, they grew anxiously
and sadly for their own parents.
It’s not here, and it’s not there!
Oops, Where are they?
8.
Is it the keen sense of smell
they possess particularly that they finally found their own parents somewhere
in the pond? It’s a big
question. The curiosity triggers
the murmuring among the audience.
“We need the experts in the fields of telecommunication or animal
pheromone to analyze the technical spectrum.”
Q & A – there are no shortage of professionals among
the audience to offer many interesting facts in medical and animal behavioral
points of views.
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