birdwatching.co.uk/my200
Everyone knows there are proverbial differences between English and Scots, and between the British south and north. But one distinction, one that has been strangely lost on generations of social commentators, is their attitude to Greylag Geese.
Take the Scots. In the autumn, when the familiar clanging call trickles down from the skies, as flocks of these geese arrive in October, like snow from Iceland, to spend the winter in the Scots’ midst, their hearts soar at this inspiring reminder of nature’s calendar.
Further south, the hearts don’t soar, they just remain stony. “So what?” they ask. “It’s a flock of Greylags, the escaped domestics, ungainly, horrendously noisy, not worth a place on the list, let alone the affections.”
There is something quintessentially romantic about flocks of animals arriving…
