By Tiffany Larsen
The world-famous geese residing in Westchester, California, as everyone knows, love to hang out in the sunny green fields next to LAX airport during the day and watch the airplanes take off and land. They sit in amazement and discuss the size of the planes and try to distinguish between a Pratt & Whitney, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, or Rolls Royce, etc. They spend hour upon hour pondering the cutting edge engineering and technology involved in running one of the busiest airports in the world.
After a full day of aviation appreciation and academic analysis they then like to fly down to the Ballona Wetlands in Marina del Rey, so that they can spend their nights squawking and honking with all of their waterfowl brethren. Most of the time it is all fun and frolic down there while they wade through the brackish water and mingle amongst the reeds. Sometimes, however, more important matters, like taxes, climate change, and the oddly fluctuating stock market are the main topics of conversation.
Like everyone else in Los Angeles, these geese have a daily commute. However, unlike the unfortunate local human population that are stuck inside of slow-moving, ground-hugging metal carriages, these geese get to fly fast and low, just over the houses, as they soar to and fro across their ancestral coastal habitat. Best of all, they never have to stop at traffic lights!
Just after sunrise, my neighbors and I can hear their cacophonous caravan arriving from the northwest. Their clarion calls of “get out of our way” and “here we come”, is a rough translation of their actual vociferations that include, “HONK!”, “HONK HONK!!”, and “HONK HONK HONK!”.
In the evening, just as the sun is setting, the process takes place in reverse. Arriving from the south and heading due northwest, the skies suddenly fill with multitudes of flying and flapping goose bodies. Sometimes they appear in impressive V-formations, while at other times disorganized clusters seems the best they can do. Occasionally a few stragglers follow behind the main flying bulwark of their web-footed troops and I often wonder why they didn’t get the memo to leave on time with the others. I guess they must share one quality with humans: sometimes they get it right, and sometimes they couldn’t organize happy hour in a brewery.
I have not personally met all of our Westchester geese cousins, but I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the leaders of Gaggle Chapter 277.3. I’ve signed an NDA that prohibits me listing all of their names, due to the fact that most of them are trying to live “off the grid”. These types are usually referred to as “The Millennials”. (FYI, they coined that term first…..humans just took the credit for it!). I digress. Sorry. Here, in order of rank, is a list of some of the Goose troop leaders that don’t mind a little publicity.
Brad, Shirley, Gwendolyn, Millicent, Scooter, Trudy, Clive, Sebastian, Roger, Colin, Hortensia, and Gilbert
We are proud and delighted to share this part of Westchester and Marina del Rey with our goose and gander compatriots. The sweetly discordant sound of their daily commute is music to our ears. It acts as a reminder that we humans must embrace and respect the Earth and all of our fellow inhabitants. The Geese of Westchester, California expect us to give them some dignity and reverence as they go about their daily commute and engage in the pursuit of happy-goose-lives.
The disturbing and disheartening news of July 2020
We have recently heard of a potential threat to our harmonious and balanced bird-human realm.
Apparently, there are some rapacious developers hoping to buy up the existing properties all along Manchester Avenue, and create an impenetrable 5-story concrete fortress that might as well be called Condo-Pocolypse.
Besides utterly ruining one of the sweetest neighborhoods in the whole wide world, this kind of development would most likely destroy the centuries old migration path of every goose, gander, and gosling in our area.
Please don’t destroy their happy-goose world.
Please help us preserve the existing homes and delicate balance needed to maintain the corridor that enjoys the Daily Commute of the Low-Flying Geese of Westchester California!