[obol] Canada Goose Fight

[bettyehunt at aol.com]

I watched two Canada Geese this morning in a terrific struggle that lasted well over?seven minutes.? Not talking about the squabbles that go on?with one chasing the other off and a lot of pecking, however protracted that can be.? When my husband first saw them, he thought they were breeding.? When we got binoculars on them we saw that they were face to face and chest to chest?flailing about wildly.? They were in fairly shallow water and didn't appear to move from the location where first observed.? After watching for over three minutes, I began to think that they were either entangled somehow below the water (beaver trap) or had managed to get their heads "connected" (plastic ties from six-packs or?each swallowed opposite ends of a snake or eel?).??Other geese would periodically come over to check things out but didn't seem to be too disturbed about the situation.?The birds finally did separate, one going out of view with the other in hot pursuit (my husband says he saw them get into it again as he went down the driveway)

Is this common behavior?? 

Bettye Hunt
Waldport
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