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Colibri
General Questions Moderator
We have quite a problem with geese that don’t migrate anymore; resident flocks of Canadian Geese taking advantage of the waterways and parks around here. Turning one into pavement pizza won’t do too much damage to your car and won’t even draw you notice from the cops of Game Commission unless you swing out of your lane to clip one and then jump out and load it into your car. But the real issue is the shit they leave behind; literally. The one hillside near where I work is basically tough to walk across for all the goose-shit in the grass. :smack:
Fair enough. I didn’t know how it would go.
Part of why I posted is I don’t know if they are migrational or not, and if they are being enticed to stay by feeding them,(and stopping for them in the street). Then that situation affects other animals, and carpets the ground with shit, and as of this year for me, they seem to want to obstruct traffic in a way that I’ve been unfamiliar with.
In fact I have noticed the goose shit for years and years but they never seemed to be taking over the roads. So I reckon some change is occurring, populations or something.
Altogether a bad animal to coexist with. IMO
Where I went to school the goose population was awful. The rule if you lived in the dorms/campus house (by ‘rule’ I mean our own own personal rule) was that as soon as you walk in you have to take your shoes off. Walking from the school to the dorms was probably about a hundred yards. If you walked on the pavement and were careful, you might be able to avoid it. If you cut across the grass, your shoes looked like you went stomping through wet mud.
Towards the end of when I was going there and in the next few years there was talk of putting poison down on the grass. I think they eventually did do it, but not with out a huge out cry from the surrounding counties. Counties that didn’t understand what it was like to deal with them. By then I was back living in Milwaukee, I spent a lot of time trying to explain to people that it’s one thing to drive past the lake and see a few geese, maybe have to stop your car to let some walk in the street or even go and sit on the beach and watch them (and, yes, throw bread to them). However, living there was hell. There were thousands of them. The campus was caked in goose shit, for those of you that haven’t seen it, it’s not like bird droppings, it’s like dog shit, it’s that big. The noise is unbearable. Having 10 geese honking a few feet away from your window a 5 am and not stopping until after dark doesn’t make for a great studying atmosphere. Also, they’re mean. They’d hiss and snarl at you as you’d try to walk past them.
FTR, by poisoning the grass, from what I understand, they were just spraying something that would make them leave the campus, not hurt them.
I just noticed that the geese from my college seem to have their own facebook page. One of the more recent posts is “Aw, you on campus people are trying to sleep? It would be a darn shame if some of us happened to be screaming right outside your window…”
What the hell does this comment have to do with anything?
Have you not seen the “I break for geese!” and “I only break for WASPS!”-bumper stickers that are used to separate liberals and conservatives on the roads?
Never mind the jackasses who will literally stand right next to a “don’t feed the wildlife” sign and throw bread to geese. Yes, I’ve seen that on Belle Isle.
A short and fast article on the subject can be found at
For a wider selection Google “resident goose populations”
The short answer is that in trying to bolster the population in the 30s, we created the problem we face today and there is no easy fast answer. These geese differ in a sense from the migratory variety for more reasons than just migration. A pro-hunting group like Ducks Unlimited would say removing protection from them would be a big part of a solution; a more “pro-animal-life” group would say some sort of sterilization efforts would be the better course. But one thing is sure — a lot of people out there think its a big problem.
Just get out of your car and quickly run toward the geese with your arms waving! 
I take it you’ve never had a goose (or several) decide to charge back at you?
geese are rude, messy, belligerent, and noisy. they’re like teenagers.
Well, Hell, someone stopped in the middle of a very busy rotary for no apparent reason and, God hell, when I saw what it was it just seemed a very hella progressive thing to do.
I think that people should feed animals where they want them to shit and reproduce.
Did you go to school in the Fenway area of Boston? I went to Wentworth , and the area near campus had a lot of geese. There were many other colleges in th same neighborhood.
I lived in the Fenway for 23 years. For 13 of them I had a Muddy River view from my living room, and once saw a blue heron from my window. The area behind the MFA where students sunbathe eventually became carpeted with shit.
Basically I have decades of coexisting and driving with fowl in an urban area. There used to be an issue with fowl going into the street to get salt after winter snow storms, but I never saw anyone have to slow down for a goose until last year.
There are a couple of shallow ponds in front of the building where I work. I think they’re only about six inches deep. In any case, every winter they attract tons of geese and ducks which displace the seagulls. They wander back and forth between the ponds and the parking lots where there are trees dropping something they like to eat, and anyone in a car who encounters them tends to stop and wait for them to waddle past.
It’s funny to see the drivers get frustrated and honk their horns and watch the geese respond by looking at the car and honking back. It’s like they’re saying “I can honk better than you can!”
The most effective interaction really seems to be to just drive along at regular speed – 10 to 15 MPH since it’s a parking lot with 10MPH signs all over the place – and the geese just seem to waddle a bit faster and get themselves out of the way. I’m on a motorcycle, so I just rev my engine a bit (I see they don’t have ears…maybe they can’t hear so well?) and continue forward and they part and give me a path through their crowd.
I’ve seen some of the delivery drivers come in and they’re usually speeding on their way to pick up or deliver packages. That’s when the geese seem to surprise drivers by revealing that their wings are NOT vestigial: They flap a couple times and take to the air to easily dodge the oncoming vans and trucks. C’mon, drivers! How stupid do you really think those birds are?
–G!
In our one park there is a fair sized lake and a couple resident flocks. One group, at least, has road crossings down pat with a couple geese stepping out on the flanks almost like crossing guards and the main body moving across. It is enough of a “what the hell” that I haven’t seen anyone honk at them yet. Some cell phone pictures ---- but no horns.
Canada geese, actually (not Canadian).
If one hatched in Winnipeg, would it be a Canadian Canada Goose?
This is my thing. The issue must be either nature or nurture: ie: there is a population explosion that has forced them to face down cars in roads; or else drivers, by dancing with them in this are making the situation happen.
It might be a combination. But I find it hard to believe they are as helpless as turtles, say.