the Walnut Diary

This morning’s article about the massive goose die-offs among migrating geese in Manitoba piqued concerns about avian flu virus. Then I recalled a marked decrease in goose droppings on lawns during visits to lock stations along the Rideau Canal. Further, at the farm our autumn days are usually punctuated by local flocks of geese barely clearing our hilltop house on their way from local harvested fields to their Big Rideau roost. Some with a load of corn aboard, have taken shortcuts through our orchard in their attempts to gain enough altitude to get across the meadow without walking.

So I asked Google AI, naturally. For some reason it assumed that I had asked about 2024, and so it reported that there was no concern, and flock leadership often devolves to a young member of the group, and routes and foraging patterns vary as a result. It said there is no evidence of bird flu affecting geese in Ontario.

I responded that this answer will not do, in the context of CBC reporting on die-offs of geese in Manitoba this morning, and that I was asking in the fall of 2025, not 24.

The response instantly reversed itself. AI stuck to the younger-goose-leads theory, but now reported that avian flu is a real concern in Southern Ontario among Canada goose populations.

I wonder: from its perspective, is a bird is any different than a car?