Alistair MacDonald, Even Canada's Most Fowl Take Flight When They Get a Gander at a Drone; Entrepreneur wants to clear capital city of country's namesake geese; National bird? Wall Street Journal, Aug 14, 2015 (front page).
http://www.wsj.com/articles/cana ... ng-geese-1439510869
Quote:
"a goose [ ] can drop 2 pounds of poop a day. * * * While reviled for its ability to defecate every 20 minutes, Branta Canadensis is often seen here as a hardy survivor whose noisy migration home in the spring sounds the welcome end of another long winter.
“ 'Among the first to arrive in spring, and last to leave in winter, they mate for life and both parents share in raising their young,' Canadian novelist Will Ferguson wrote
"The Goosebuster, as Mr [photographer Steve] Wambolt calls his drone, is 26 inches wide with six rotors. It has a number of modifications, including speakers that blast the sounds of predator birds, such as eagles, hawks and buzzards, a strobe light and a coat of black paint. 'They don’t like the color black,' he said.
"The US government’s Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that last year there were at least 4.8 million Canada geese in North America.
Note:
(a) The "most fowl" is a wordplay on "most foul."
(b)
(i) The English noun gander is usually used in the phrase
what's good for the goose 母雁 is good for the gander 公雁
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/what's_good_for_the_goose_is_good_for_the_gander
(ii) But the noun gander has another definition: “look, glance” -- usually used as “take a gander at” but occasionally as “get a gander at” (as here). Where is the origin of this gander? Turns out it (this use) comes from the definition of 公雁.
(A) Oxforddictionaries.com: "informal [From criminals' slang]" (brackets original)
http://www.oxforddictionaries.co ... ican_english/gander
(B) Merriam-webster.com: “probably from 1gander; from the outstretched neck of a person craning to look at something; First Known Use circa 1914”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gander
|