Golfers, pilots, others find geese nuisance

Dec 19, 11 Photo By Joel Anderson | The News Outlet

Canada geese are easy to spot. With their long black necks, white chinstraps and brown feathers, you see them everywhere. They can weigh anywhere from four to 20 pounds. Their numbers have increased over the last five decades and that’s a problem. Joel Anderson has the story.

Golfers, pilots, others find geese nuisance by The News Outlet

Imagine you’re at your favorite park. It’s a nice warm sunny day. You walk around enjoying the sights and sounds. Children playing on the swing-set, dogs running with their owners and geese flying overhead. (HONK< HONK< HONK) It’s a picturesque scene. And then you step in goose droppings.

Geese and their feces are a real pain these days. Golfers run the risk of balls landing in goo. You can’t walk in the parks or near a lake without watching your step. Beachgoers dodge droppings and mothers worry about their toddlers falling face first into feces. And even the casual shopper needs to be wary of where they step in parking lots.

Not only is it unsightly, but it can also be responsible for the spread of disease such as E. coli, cholera and botulism. Stephen Vantassel, coordinator of wildlife damage management at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln, says it’s difficult to connect feces with disease outside of common sense.

IN: Certainly I think
OUT: to do that.
TRT: 11 seconds

(Certainly I think that if you stuck your finger in a dropping and then shoved it in your mouth, probably there would be connection because that’s unusual for people to do that.)

Geese like manicured lawns. Which is why they make their homes in cemeteries, golf courses and parks. Kirsten Peetz, environmental land manager of the Mill Creek MetroParks, says the geese take advantage of nicely mown turf.

IN: The other big
OUT: advantage of that.
TRT: 21 seconds

(The other big problem we have to address is the fact the geese are attracted to the park. Because it provides the short mown right up to the open water that they need or they want. They don’t like areas were they feel that predators can hide. So all this open lawn area that we create for the enjoyment of people happens to be beneficial to the geese.)

The goose population in Ohio has more than quadrupled in the last 50 years. In 1979, the goose population stood at 18,000. Today, the geese number 84,000. And they live in all counties, as opposed to 49 in 79. And many geese are resident geese. That is, they don’t migrate any more they live here year round.
People can handle their goose problem by using some of the tactic Doug Lyons, northeast manager of Mosquito Lake, uses at his park.

IN: We’ve done several
OUT: to chase geese.
TRT: 21 seconds

(We’ve done several things. The most successful thing we’ve done is we have guns and they shoot blanks. We have routed out coyotes and painted and we put those in various areas and we try to move them weekly. And there’s a white and a black bag in their mouth, so it makes the appearance that the coyote has a goose in its mouth. We have a couple local owners that has collies that are trained to chase geese.)

However, not all of them work well. One of the most debated tactics is wolf silhouettes, some people swear by them. Like Mel Culp, supervisor of operations and facilities for Austintown Schools, says the wooden cut outs worked wonders after he installed them around various school properties.

IN: It’s pretty amazing
OUT: didn’t even land.
TRT: 11 Seconds

(It’s pretty amazing in all honesty. The next morning I was out in the yard when I heard the geese coming and you could hear them coming across the sky and they were honking. They didn’t even land. )

For others, the silhouettes just aren’t worth the hassle. Lyons says the geese get used to them far too quickly.

IN: They work well
OUT: they’re not Coyotes.
TRT: 12 seconds

(They work well when you first put them out and then the geese get used to them. You have to move them around. But eventually, the geese are smart that they know they’re not Coyotes.)

But the goose nuisance isn’t only felt on the ground. In the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Sean Connery’s character, Henry Jones, has an epiphany.

IN: I suddenly remembered
OUT: in the sky
TRT: 9 seconds

(I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne. Let my armies be the rocks, and the trees, and the birds in the sky.)

You may remember from that scene Connery’s character scares a flock of birds skyward to down a Nazi warplane. It’s the last part of the quote that affects us today. Geese constantly collide with airplanes. In the Mississippi Flyway, there have been 1,299 bird strikes between 1990 and 2010. Flight 1549, now known as the Miracle on the Hudson, was brought down by a collision with a flock of Canada geese.

IN: Now we know
OUT: your engine power
TRT: 5 seconds

(Now we know from the Miracle on the Hudson that’s what happens when you lose your engine power.)

That’s Tara Baranowski, district biologist for the US Department of Agriculture and the Animals and Plant Health Inspection Service, says the Ohio field station is trying to limit the number of strikes.

IN: What they’re trying
OUT: the two colliding.
TRT: 14 seconds

(What they’re looking at is different perceptions of different species of birds and how they can enhance detection of aircraft by birds so that the birds can avoid the aircraft altogether instead of the two colliding.)

The Migratory Bird Act of 1918 had a major impact on the goose population. This bill protects the birds and their eggs and nests from being harmed by any one without a permit first.

Special hunting seasons have been set up so that the over population can be controlled. Hunters can go after the pesky bird two different times a year. The early season in September, and the actual season, which runs from October to January.

So the next time you’re out for a leisurely stroll in the park, or out to visit a loved one’s grave, just remember a few things. A goose can defecate up to 92 times in a day, 50 geese can produce almost a ton and a half of feces in a year and a goose can become aggressive if you don’t have bread for them (Honk Honk Honk) …on second thought, perhaps you’d rather just stay home instead.

For the News Outlet I’m Joel Anderson