Canadian geese ... are there too many

[robinborton]

I thought this might be a timely post for those of us that enjoy a goose on Christmas day.
Having just stepped onto my pontoon directly onto the latest gift from our guests from the US I was prompted to post the question ...are there too many Canadian Geese on the Thames? they seem to be growing in numbers every year and spoil many a good mooring and do untold damage to crops

 

[rosssavage]

Bless the day a pair of swans took up residence in my reach. Their territorial behaviour has kept my lawn / boat goose free since their arrival.

Swans get well fed for their troubles

 

[TrueBlue]

I thought this might be a timely post for those of us that enjoy a goose on Christmas day.
Having just stepped onto my pontoon directly onto the latest gift from our guests from the US I was prompted to post the question ...are there too many Canadian Geese on the Thames? they seem to be growing in numbers every year and spoil many a good mooring and do untold damage to crops

They're a species from Canada hence the name (Canadians are much nicer than Americans )

Yes there are too many.
The easy way is to shoot them, but not politically correct and from a sportsman / gamekeeper / farmer point of view probably not easy to get a clean shot with a shotgun.

Any way they'll just up the population to fill the gap. An easier way is to spike the eggs each season, so that the hen will sit on an addled egg rather than lay more if eggs are removed. But that's very labour intensive.

To survive in their natural habitat, they are used to covering large distances and have few predators in an area populated by bears, flies, Innuit and the occasional Attenborough. So the only thing that keeps them under control is the appalling climate. If a threat presents itself they just fly away for another thousand miles. They are not very nice to eat either....

Unless they are declared as a pest there's not a lot than landowners can do without risking a backlash from tree huggers and the like.

That's my view.

I found this link to what folks in the Canada after writing the above.

 

[Poignard]

Surely, with Christmas coming up, you can do your bit to reduce the numbers a little?

 

[sarabande]

they are not tasty.


Problem is for me that shooting one means that its lifetime mate will be upset. I'd go for spiking the eggs, though that is a bit frustrating for the pair as well.

MDL had an infestation recently, with cr*p all over the pontoons. It was only when the question of H&S for the staff was raised that the geese were 'disappeared' the next year.


Part of the problem is the size of the birds; the bigger they are , the more sentient / intelligent they seem. I think that is why Peter Scott in the end gave up wildfowling.

 

[Sulley]

Bless the day a pair of swans took up residence in my reach. Their territorial behaviour has kept my lawn / boat goose free since their arrival.

Swans get well fed for their troubles

That explains why there aren't any in our area! Excellent.

 

[watson1959]

Bless the day a pair of swans took up residence in my reach. Their territorial behaviour has kept my lawn / boat goose free since their arrival.

Swans get well fed for their troubles

So we must continue to feed the flock of swans that guard the entrance to T&K!

Unfortunately that doesnt stop the ones who arrive by air and cr*p on F pontoon

 

[Norman_E]

The stupid thing about geese is that whilst it is perfectly legal to shoot them for the pot, and they make a good meal, it is apparantly illegal to shoot them for commercial sale. If that was legal you would see plenty in butchers shops and on restaurant menus.

 

[blenkinsop]

Having a similar problem at our rowing club, we were advised that, in preparing canada goose for the pot, it should be marinaded for 48hrs or so before feeding to the dog.

 

[Sturgess]

nature in balance

For nature to be able to do her stuff, each species needs at least one predator or something that keeps the numbers from becoming out of balance.. It well past the time that real nature lovers chose to reduce the numbers of Canada Geese to give mother nature a hand

 

[dash300]

Bless the day a pair of swans took up residence in my reach. Their territorial behaviour has kept my lawn / boat goose free since their arrival.

Swans get well fed for their troubles

Unfortunately we have ample numbers Swans and Geese happily co-habiting together down here on the Weybridge and Walton stretch so not sure Swans are a deterent to these pests. My neighbours and I have for years been goose egg smashing for years and still they come! Keep feeding the Swans however.

 

[rosssavage]

Admittedly I have no real ornithological knowledge to back my claim up, but our previous rather heavy infestation of defacating geese have completely disappeared since a swan territorial war two years ago.