Mat Malone
Defending His Love
Geese are monogamous. Couples will stay together for at least a season, but can even stay together for life. Male geese will even aggressively defend their mates from danger.
I had been photographing a pair of geese for about 20 minutes. The male goose would position himself in front of his mate, presumably to protect her. Every few minutes they would get tired of me being next to them photographing, and they would move to the other side of the lake; I would just follow them and go back to shooting.
After a while, this male got tired of that routine. He literally ran out of the water, flew over right in front of me, and began flapping his wings, pumping out his chest and loudly crowing at me like the wild animal he is -- all in an attempt to get me to back off. While I wasn't particularly scared, I thought it was a great pose.
-Added to the Cream of the Crop pool as my personal favorite.
Defending His Love
Geese are monogamous. Couples will stay together for at least a season, but can even stay together for life. Male geese will even aggressively defend their mates from danger.
I had been photographing a pair of geese for about 20 minutes. The male goose would position himself in front of his mate, presumably to protect her. Every few minutes they would get tired of me being next to them photographing, and they would move to the other side of the lake; I would just follow them and go back to shooting.
After a while, this male got tired of that routine. He literally ran out of the water, flew over right in front of me, and began flapping his wings, pumping out his chest and loudly crowing at me like the wild animal he is -- all in an attempt to get me to back off. While I wasn't particularly scared, I thought it was a great pose.
-Added to the Cream of the Crop pool as my personal favorite.