An Egyptian goose

Yesterday, I went bird watching to a meadow. The meadow had a flood like a pond, and there are a lot of water birds, such as ducks, geese, swans, and gulls. Also, because the weather was not great and it started raining a little bit, many sparrows were soaring over the flood. I brought my binoculars with me and enjoyed watching those birds.

Then, at the opposite shore of the flood, I saw a goose which had a distinct colour. It was unmistakably not a greylag goose or Canadian goose. I thought it was an Egyptian goose. Once I'd seen them when I visited Masai Mara in Kenya, Africa. But I left my field guide at my flat, so that I couldn't confirm my guess.

Then I came to my office and looked Egyptian goose up on the internet. What I saw was no other than an Egyptian goose. As its name suggest, they live in Africa, and in the UK they are rather rare. Only 700 adult Egyptian geese breed in the UK.

Also, there was a blog reporting bird species observed at the meadow, almost daily. I soon found Egyptian goose in the latest entry. Although I didn't see any other bird watchers there, the guy running this blog also went to the meadow and saw the same rare goose. Now, no question. I was just lucky.


Today, I met one of my colleagues. He is a very keen and experienced bird watcher. I wanted to report my observation yesterday and said to him, "How rare is Egyptian goose in Oxford?"

To tell the truth, I had a serious problem with the pronunciation of 'Egyptian', so that I couldn't take care of grammars and other stuff. No doubt, my question was a lot more horrible than you've just read.

He couldn't understand me immediately. So I asked, "You know, Egypt?"

"Yes," he said.

"The adjective of Egypt?"

"Egyptian?" he said.

"Yes, Egyptian goose. How rare are they?" I asked again.

Then he replied to me, wearing an expression of surprise, "Well..., you can find them in Museum..."

"I found one yesterday at the meadow. That's why I'm asking," I said.

"What? You found it on the ground?", he looked really interested now.

"Yeah, it was on the ground," I answered.

"What did it look like? How big was it?", he asked.

"It's this size, you know," I showed him the size of a goose with my hands. "It was like this colour. It had exotic patterns at its head and hip. I've once seem them when I was in Kenya. It's definitely not a greylag goose or Canadian goose. It was an Egyptian goose."

Then he said, "Goose? Oh, sorry, I thought you're talking about Egyptian GOODS on the ground."