Geese are two things, obnoxious and scary. Part of that has always been a personal view because they chased me at the park because I didn’t have any more food. And part of that is now documented in this photo of a goose showing off to his friends. An amateur photographer from the Netherlands has captured a whiffing goose. This rare image is very had to capture because when geese do this, it’s only for seconds.
A dark gray-brown Bean goose is seen in the image flying on its back with his head rotated 180 degrees. Vincent Cornelissen who captured it was worried that people would think it was photoshopped because it looked so odd.
“I saw that one of the three had trouble flying in a straight line. He was having a hard time which I thought was because of the wind. He seemed to be struggling, so I took some pictures of him.”
Cornelissen
After sharing the image on his Facebook page, he caught the attention of academics and more than 10,000 followers. One person, wildlife photographer Lars Soerink, knew about the phenomenon and told Cornelissen about it:
“Once young geese have mastered flying, they start to see what is possible and how far they can go. They do it to brag to their peers. Like, look at me! We know that some geese do this, but it’s a matter of seconds, so photos of this phenomenon are rare. Certainly as sharp and good as this one. So all credit to the photographer.”
Lars Soerink
So not only do geese chase, but they also taunt and flaunt to their peers. In my book, that makes them even more jerkier in spirit. But like I said, I’m not a fan.
Just makes us think of this iconic moment in “Top Gun.” What? The co-pilot’s name is Goose!
“You were in a 4G inverted dive with a Mig 28? What were you doing?”
