What’s honkin’ on this Everett thoroughfare? Have a gander

EVERETT — Henrietta and Betty are a honky-tonk girl band.

You can hear them daily on the stretch of 52nd Street SE between Colby Avenue and Evergreen Way.

What’s up with that?

The pair of geese live in the front yard of a home at the corner of Wilmington Avenue. It’s the one with the blue plastic kiddie pool that stays out year-round.

The goose gals honk off of each other in a back-and-forth song. OK, so maybe Taylor Swift caliber they are not, but they are pretty tootin’ good.

Ryan and Michaella Carlson started with chickens about six years ago.

“They were super-fun,” said Ryan, 31, a plumbing engineer. “Then we added a couple ducks and they were super-fun. The only thing after that was geese. So we got a couple geese. I didn’t realize they’d be as loud as they are.”

The geese dig in the yard and the ducks are messy, but the fans make it worth it.

“It is so fun to have people walk by our house and stop or say, ‘I go on this walk because they are here,’” said Michaella, 29, a part-time firefighter and EMT. “They don’t honk at the cars, just people walking by.”

The yard faces the traffic of cars and pedestrians on the somewhat busy thoroughfare that borders the expansive grounds of Everett Golf and Country Club.

A city facility license allows more than five birds. In addition to two geese, the couple currently have four chickens and five ducks.

And a 2-year-old son, Pacey.

Their first three geese, Henrietta, Henry and Yellow Belly, were home-hatched births in an incubator in May 2019.

“The first day I took one out of the incubator I went and took a shower and it followed me,” Ryan said.

“They imprint,” Michaella added.

The breed, Chinese geese, can live 20 years.

Yellow Belly’s life was cut short as a gosling by hungry raccoons. A coyote nabbed Henry in 2022.

Henrietta mourned her mate’s loss.

“It was horrible,” Ryan said. “She would squawk for him day and night. It was very sad.”

To ease her grief, an egg purchased online was incubated to replace Henry.

Henrietta formed a bond with the hatchling, Bubba, as did the Carlsons.

As a gosling, Bubba fell into the plastic pool one day and nearly drowned. Ryan saw it through the picture window floating on its side in the water. He rushed the limp figure inside.

“I didn’t give mouth-to-mouth but I gave chest compressions,” Ryan said.

Bubba thrived.

“He acted like a dude. He was a little more aggressive and loud. He acted like he was a cool thing,” Ryan said.

Turns out he was a she.

How’d they know?

Easy: She laid eggs.

Hence Bubba was renamed Betty.

For safety, the fowl now all stay in a pen at night: The chickens go to bed early. The ducks doze off later. The geese like to stay up, standing guard.

“They play security,” Ryan said.

The geese are the noisemakers.

“Geese are a delicate balance with your neighbors,” Ryan said. “I don’t think geese would work unless you have really good neighbors and a busy street.”

A golf course instead of houses across the street also helps.

Having such a visible fowl yard makes the Carlson yard the local lost bird center.

“Whenever birds get out they always assume they are my birds,” Ryan said.

Some put fowl that goes astray in his yard. Or bring spares.

“A guy brought me a bunch of baby turkeys,” he said. “I told him I couldn’t do anything with them.”

Lynda Erickson lives in the neighborhood and got attached to the flock during her daily walk. She volunteers two days a week to caretake the birds.

”You can’t help but love them,” Erickson said as she walked around the yard in rubber boots, tending to her feathered friends. “A lot of people enjoy them. When they walk by, they’ll stop. When they’re driving by, they’ll stop.”

As does she.

“I can be going somewhere and I’ll go by and roll down my window and say, ‘Hi Henrietta.’ And she’ll start making all that noise. She knows her name,” she said.

Karen Petrin walks by often on her trips to the market. She was overheard saying “I love you” to the geese on a recent morning.

“They brighten my day,” she said.

Is there a person, place or thing making you wonder “What’s Up With That?” Contact reporter Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterbrown.