Every year about this time a pair of geese make residence on our pond for a couple of weeks waiting on the right southern breeze to carry them north. I like to think their the same pair every year. I spend alot of time observing wildlife but these things are absolutely mesmerizing. Their doting, caution for each other, communications, elegance is unsurpassed. And every year I dig out the book "Wild Goose, Brother Goose" by Mel Ellis and it gets passed around the family. Any day now the kids will come home from school anxious to take them some corn and our friends will be gone. They'll include their safety and health during grace at the supper table that night and their father will be very proud to have raised them in the country.
His heart knows what the wild goose knows
And he must go where the wild goose goes.
Wild goose brother goose which is best.
A wanderin' fool or a heart at rest.
These birds are a pest. Greenbo Lake State Park is a 225 acre lake and they had to close the beach area 5-6 years ago because of excessive geese dropping in the water and on the beach.
They have trapped them and hauled them off but they always come back to Greenbo. They don't have a clue on how to get rid of the big ol' pesky birds.
Golfers around here are complaining that the geese are pests also. They create large open areas of unnaturally lush grasses dotted with overfertilized water holes and then wonder why they can't keep the goosepoop off their shoes. Odd how many of nature's most beautiful and intelligent species travel such a narrow line between being deemed an endangered species or being a threat to our well-being; eagles, bears, beavers, alligators, mountain lions. I think the people at Greenbo Lake should learn to share the lake, it ain't "theirs" any more than the golf course is the golfer's. My suggestion would be for them to plant some more trees, that would discourage the geese. But then all them pesky flying squirrels everwhere...
Yea I get a pair every year same ones. They are a nusience their honking in the morning wakeing you up! Not to mentchion all of the poop in the yard!
rabbitrae90
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Been seeing them flying over as they head back up north quite often lately. They do park themselves on certain properties - I don't have a pond yet, so they bypass me but have a few neighbors that get 'em as twice yearly residents.
I like them, myself. Of course, I haven't had to deal with them doing terrible things to my place and being territorial but...I kind of hope (now - I remember when I hoped to have lots of blackberry bushes [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]) that I get some residents every now and then...
Oh, and don't get me started on golf course people that think wildlife are pests. [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img]
Those **** birds never leave anymore. They are year round in Michigan now. And they are everywhere. Over weekends parking lots gets slick because of all the goose poop. They have become a PITA. One metro park had to have them 'removed' because of the stench that the waste created. A few are fin, but when they are in the hundreds... ugh. And they are mean bastards too. I was chased down on my mountain bike by two one afternoon.
Hope they dont find my house. Will have to train my dog to scare them off. Heck he will want to play with them.
<font color="blue"> Heck he will want to play with them. </font color>
They'll probably attack him :P. You're right - they are pretty agressive beasts. I suppose I don't mind 'em much because I don't have any that hang around my place :-).
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