The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs
4 Comments »16th February, 2007; Category: Ducks Geese and Swans
I have been featuring various idioms, their origins and meanings on my writing blog. Some of these feature bird related topics or words. Today I highlight another of these interesting expressions.
This week’s idiom: “To kill the goose which lays the golden eggs.”
Origin:
This saying comes from the Aesop’s fable The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs.
A man and his wife had the good fortune to possess a goose which laid a golden egg every day. Lucky though they were, they soon began to think they were not getting rich fast enough, and, imagining the bird must be made of gold inside, they decided to kill it in order to secure the whole store of precious metal at once. But when they cut it open they found it was just like any other goose. Thus, they neither got rich all at once, as they had hoped, nor enjoyed any longer the daily addition to their wealth. (From Wikipedia)
Meaning:
The commonly used meaning of this expression relates to the act either and individual or an organisation that abuses a source of income or profit through excessive greed to the point where that income is destroyed.
Example:
By not looking after the needs of his customers, the shopkeeper killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.
Photo:
The photo below shows a Cape Barren Goose, an Australian bird. It does not lay golden eggs. Some entrepreneurs tried to harvest these birds from the wild for use in their restaurants here in South Australia. They were soon stopped because the total world population is only something like eight to ten thousand. Such slaughter would inevitably have resulted in “killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.”
Cape Barren Goose
A Sitting Duck
This week’s idiom: “A sitting duck.”
Meaning:
Someone or something that is ‘a sitting duck’ is an easy to hit target. Someone who is a ‘sitting duck’ is open to an easy physical or verbal attack.
Origin:
This expression quite obviously comes from hunters, and duck shooters in particular. A sitting duck, on merely bobbing on the surface of the water, as opposed to one swimming, diving, dabbling or flying, is an easy target for the shooter.
Example:
Left alone on stage, he was completely at the mercy of the angry crowd. James felt like a sitting duck.
Disclaimer 1: The writer of this blog in no way endorses duck shooting.
Disclaimer 2: No ducks, nor any other birds, were harmed in taking the photo below.
Please note: the photo below is of a STANDING duck. I don’t have a photo of a sitting duck – yet.
UPDATE: I should point out the the bird shown in the photo is an Australian Wood Duck. The Wood Duck found in North America is quite a different species.
Australian Wood Duck (male)
Great Birding Moments # 27 Wood Duck family
Vehicle Ferry crossing the River Murray
A beautiful spot near our home in Murray Bridge is the nearby town of Mannum. This pleasant community is also built on the banks of the River Murray. It is about a half hour drive from home. Mannum has several lovely picnic spots on the bank of the river. We had our picnic overlooking the river and all the bird life in a sanctuary near the caravan park.
Australian Wood Ducks with ducklings
Mannum has two vehicular ferries crossing the river at one end of the main street. These ferries are always on the go during the day. They offer a 24 hour river crossing service. While we were waiting to cross over to the other side we were delighted to see two families of Wood Ducks on the grass bank in a nearby park.
Australian Wood Ducks with ducklings
More Cape Barren Geese
No Comments »9th December, 2006; Category: Ducks Geese and Swans
Cape Barren Geese
I have previously written about Cape Barren Geese near to Murray Bridge. On a trip to Meningie recently we saw several more flocks of this species. They too were grazing in dairy pastures. This was near the shores of Lake Albert. These flocks were not as large as that previously seen. Nevertheless, it is good to see that this species is doing quite well despite its relatively small numbers.
Related article:
- Cape Barren Geese – this flock was near Murray Bridge
Pelicans, Shelducks and Teal
On a recent visit to Meningie, about an hour’s drive south of home, we passed a swamp area next to Lake Albert. The River Murray flows into Lake Alexandrina which in turn flows into Lake Albert. It is near the significant wetland called the Coorong.
In this swampy area we saw a large number of Australian Pelicans (about 40), hundreds of Australian Shelducks and several hundred Grey Teal (mostly out of the photo). This was probably one of the largest concentrations of shelducks I have seen anywhere. In my experience they tend to spread out over a wide area as they graze. On this occasion they were probably sheltering together from the wild, stormy, freezing wind on that day. I took this shot from the car. It was about 14 degrees but a week later it was 41 degrees!
If you click on the photo you might be able to see several Pacific Black Ducks, a few White Ibis, and at least two Black Cormorants (also called Great Cormorants). Behind me and a little down the road were about 40 Cape Barren Geese.
Alas – no Glossy Ibis.
This is turning out to be a real bogey species for me.
Australian Pelicans, Lake Albert