Giving the birds the bird.

In the new park that the town is building next door to where I live, there are signs around the little lake that say “Keep away. Treated with Canada Geese deterrent.”
So, instead, the geese — along with flocks of sea gulls (sea gulls??) — are gathering around the large areas of the grassy park land that have flooded because they weren

5 thoughts on “Giving the birds the bird.

  1. I ferget where You live, Elaine.. NorthEast? Past few years, geese and ducks have been over-bountiful in this part of the MidWest (Central Ohio). So bountiful that I don’t believe the notion of trying to sequester the birds was even floated.
    (Haha…:-) I mean.. any whereEVER there’s a pool-ta wade in.. like next to the bus station Park-n-Ride complex.. then seems there’s a gaggle-a geese… Don’t mine a-tall, except the small minority of UPPITY geese who KNOW that THEY’VE got the right-a-way.. and take EVERY advantage of their knowledge…;-D
    šŸ˜€

  2. What the hell is geese deterrent? No, don’t tell me, I don’t think I want to know. We have a problem with the 1.2 million birds that spend their summer vacation up here in Alaska, flying into the props and jet engines of the many planes up here. A study was done. Conclusion: they needed their own pond.
    Fixed. EZ. Problem solved. Each landing strip or airport, has many ponds designated for our little feathered friends, which makes them happy and the guy that washes the windshields, too, I imagine.
    Birds will be birds, and birds of a feather….
    well, you know.

  3. My guess is the proximity to the airport is exactly the reason for looking to deter the geese because of their tendency not to observe airline skeds and avoid the airspace during takeoffs and landings. Any airplane deterrent? I long ago decided there was no need for planes. And, yes, seagulls proliferate all over the tri-county area. They seem particularly to like football fields and garbage dumpsters.

  4. Hey Kate — thought you’d like to know that I emailed our town supervisor with your explanation of how they solved the problem in your neck of the woods. I figured it was worth a try. Common sense, really, don’t you think?
    I’m assuming that “geese deterrent” is some kind of poison; a few get sick and the others stay away. While the idea makes me sick, the reality of constantly navigating around goose guano and going out of one’s way all the time to avoid the aggressive drakes is not great either. Unfortunately, you can’t negotiate with a goose.

  5. LOL, E. “Unfortunately you can’t negotiate with a goose.” They can be a little…testy. What if they put chlorine in the people pond and left the duck pond natural? I’ll have to try and find out how the military separated the ducks from the pond they claimed and transferred them over to their new residence. I imagine it wasn’t easy. And probably was pretty funny, knowing all the characters in the comedy.

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