#barnacle geese

[besidethepath]

In this environment, you no longer understand your own screaming

[losersanddummies]

Barnacle geese are my new obsession, and this article about them is very good.

[antiqueanimals]

The Common Objects of the Seashore. Written by John George Wood. 1857.

Internet Archive

[eddieintheocean]

with abiogenesis, proximity is enough. geese and barnacles were seen near each other a lot in like shipping ports and piers etc, and that's all.

again, what were they on to make that connection

[bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Barnacle Goose

^image credit: Andreas Trepte on Wikipedia

Barnacle Goose (branta leucopsis)

The Barnacle Goose is so named because they were originally believed to be born fully-formed from the goose barnacle. Because of this myth, Catholics abstaining from meat during Lent would still eat this bird, because it was considered a fish due to this supposed origin.

note: any fact containing mention of birds being eaten will be tagged as 'birds as food tw' if you would like to block this tag.

[kristo-flowers]

Barnacle geese in a meadow, Bourgoyen nature reserve, Ghent, Belgium

[r04ch4ch3]

goose baby from last summer

[maypoleman1]

12th January

The Goose Tree

Source: Pinterest posted by ipinimg.com

One this day in 1807 a Captain Bytheway (suspicions immediately aroused!) attempted to demonstrate that the by then largely debunked medieval theory that geese were the fruit of barnacle-covered Goose Trees was in fact true, by claiming to have discovered several of the said trees on Orkney. The fable went that infant geese sprang from the black and white shellfish that encrusted the bark of the trees concerned. When investigated, trees in both Orkney and Barrow-in-Furness were indeed to be found covered in barnacles but, amazingly, no geese chicks were observed emerging from them. To the despair of serious naturalists, this “research” took on a life of its own for a while, with an entire alternative school of biology developing to explain the ins and outs of the Barnacle Goose in response to what was almost certainly a practical joke.

The origins of this myth may lie in Judaic, and later Christian, attempts to classify geese as fruits of the trees so they could comprise part of the kosher diet and be acceptable consumption over Lent. The reason for this may lie in Hebrew puzzlement at the sudden arrival of migrating geese in the Eastern Mediterranean and the emergence of the belief that they must have sprung forth from somewhere, rather than flown thousands of miles from Northern Europe in the autumn. The later Christian belief may actually have been a knowing scam to permit the eating of some meat in Lent.

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Barnacle Goose

Photo: Stefan Berndtsson

"An attractive small goose, nesting on Arctic coasts from northeastern Greenland east to Siberia, and wintering in northwestern Europe. Greenland birds may occasionally go off course and reach northeastern North America. However, this is a popular aviary bird, and most Barnacle Geese seen on this continent have probably escaped from captivity."

- Audubon Field Guide

[ms-foobles]

I just learned that Pope Innocent II had to call a meeting to decide whether or not Geese were fish or birds because people were convinced that they were not technically meat and thus eating them during lent. The idea was that geese were born out of the barnacles on rotten driftwood and/or trees. And so, being born of a shellfish which is not inseminated by a bird, large numbers of people considered them to be fish and therefore fine to eat during lent.

The species of Barnacle Goose (a bird) and Goose Barnacle (a barnacle) still have these names which originate from this belief. Also, at the time, people in europe didn't understand that bird migration was a thing so when they saw these barnacles whose colorations and textures vaguely resembled Geese skin and plumage, it makes sense why they might have come to the conclusion that they did (also considering the widespread acceptance of spontaneous generation theory).

Like this is so funny in retrospect but I still really respect the theories people came up with to explain the world when they had such limited knowledge. Also, it's important to note that this theory was somewhat controversial even in the time.

[besidethepath]

A natural spectacle - the flight of the barnacle geese

[antiqueanimals]

The Child's Picture Scrap Book. Containing Upwards of Four Hundred Illustrations by John Gilbert, J. D. Watson, Wolf, Coleman, etc. 1865.

Internet Archive

[north-american-duck-poll]

Round 1 match 6B

[songbirdradiation]

Barnacle geese in Helsinki, Finland. October 2022.

[dopescissorscashwagon]

By Dave Hatton

[topios]

Blue mussels with small barnacles.