It’s Nesting Season for Canada Geese
Right now, resident Canada geese are settling in for their annual nesting season. They’ve selected their mates, built their nests, and are ready to lay some eggs…hopefully not on your property. Here’s the problem: once geese have ‘moved in’, it’s almost impossible to get them to leave. Imagine if someone came to your house in the middle of the night and tried to convince you to move out, leaving behind all of your comfort, security, resources…AND your children! Would that go over very well? Probably not. That’s pretty much how the geese feel when we try to get them to leave our property during their nesting season.
According to Dr. Phil “Dr. Goose” Whitford’s Calendar of the Goose, the 8—10 week period that follows is molting season (from June to August), when Canada geese gather on and around lakes and ponds to shed their old feathers, and re-grow new ones. Because they are unable to fly during this time, they can only be moved to areas they can reach on foot. New families and non-breeding geese alike move to these molting sites, doing serious damage to the landscape of the areas that they are temporarily inhabiting.
Not-So-Fun Fact: Each Canada goose defecates about 28 times per day!
Bird-X recommends goose-proofing your property before nesting season so that geese learn to take up residence elsewhere. If geese have already nested on your property this year, be prepared to move them in late May—after their eggs have hatched and when molting season is about to begin. Try combining the Bird-X GooseBuster® with some visual scare tactics. The GooseBuster is a sonic speaker system that creates an audio attack using recordings of actual Canada geese alarm, alert and distress calls. Developed using scientific research and field study, the GooseBuster is the most comprehensive goose repeller in the world.
Dr. Goose has a PhD in biological sciences, specializing in animal behavior. He also has BS and MS degrees in wildlife management. The findings from his extensive studies of the Canada goose have been presented in over 100 publications.
Written by Chrissy Hansen—Media Correspondent for Bird-X, Inc.
Oregon park flooded with geese droppings
Tualatin, Ore. has decided to use swan decoys to control their growing geese issues. (source: www.tualatintimes.com)
A recent article in The Times, a Portland-area newspaper, talked about a goose problem at the Lake at the Commons in Tualatin, Oregon. According to Bob Martin, parks maintenance supervisor, the geese are producing “nearly five gallons of excrement a day, which mostly ends up on the pavement.”
The mess is problematic in various ways — smell, chemical, general sanitation, take your pick — so a parks staff person has to spend an hour a day cleaning it up. This costs quite a bit of money over time, Martin says, so the city has tried multiple methods of “goose abatement.”
They hit it right on the head – geese can become a pest, but dealing with their droppings is expensive and can be down-right dangerous. Slip-and-fall incidents are not uncommo, and that can lead to lawsuits. Not to mention that acidic droppings can erode multiple surfaces and are filled with transferable diseases.
Their solution was two plastic swans anchored at the bottom of the lake shown above. Swans and geese are natural enemies, so having decoy swans in the lake does make sense.
A good addition to the swans would be a predator decoy; something like a fox or coyote replica works well because both of them present a valid danger. If the geese get to close, they may turn into dinner! Bird-X carries predator decoys, like our 3D coyote and the fox replica. The 3D coyote is life-like and in attack mode, creating the illusion of danger to the geese.
The fox replica is a menacing 2D decoy that covers up to one acre, perfect for small lakes and community parks. Luckily, both of these bird control options are low maintenance — set it up once and you’re done. No clean up. No reapplying a product. And no hassle.
Get in contact with one of our experts to order one today!