Here in the Seattle area, there has been an ongoing battle with the abundant number of Canada geese and the poop they leave on beaches and lawns of Lake Washington. Lake Washington is a very large lake and has many multi million dollar homes on it’s shores. Bill Gates is building his mansion on Lake Washington.
To rid parks of the geese, the King County Park Department has hired folks to chase the geese away. Trained dogs are very effective for chasing the geese into the water but getting them away from the park requires a little more effort. Many of these goose chasers use remote control boats to chase the geese away.
I work for a large aircraft manufacturer of commercial airplanes who just happens to have a manufacturing plant on the south shore of Lake Washington. To the immediate east of the plant is Gene Coulan Park, a city of Renton park. I was working today (weekend overtime is very common) and this morning was powering up a new 737 on the ramp outside of the factory. A group of us watched a group of geese swimming from the direction of the part being chased by a bright yellow remote controlled boat. The guy running the boat, which was maybe 16 inches long, was a couple hundred feet away. The boat buzzed one of the geese and it did something I have never seen before. The goose dived under the water, resurfaced about 6 feet away, then swam through the water with only it’s head above the surface.
It did this for about 30 feet till it reached a bulkhead. The boat buzzed a couple other geese and they did the same thing. These 2 swam under water for about 50 feet till the boat quit chasing them. I have been watching the geese around the lake for years and have harrassed them many times. But they have always flown away from anything they perceived as a threat. I just thought it was strange.
