My love/ hate relationship with Canadian geese
By Donnell Ann Bell

My mother loves to tell the story of when they lived in Texas and our family had a pet goose.  Mom says as a toddler I would chase that bird.  When I would fall down, the goose would stop, wait for me, I would get up and our routine would begin anew.  Little did I know that that wild goose chase was merely a foreshadow of more to come.

Fast forward oh, thirty-five years or so, and my husband, kids and I move into a new home in Colorado.  We love it here.  It’s a quaint little neighborhood with a lake setting a block away, and a lovely circle in front of the house that the homeowner’s associate saw fit to plant with an abundance of trees and grass.

I, obviously, am not the only one who thought the area was charming.  For the past ten years or so I’ve had guests.  Not the type that clutter-up-the- bathroom guests; they don’t come with suitcases, although they do fly in in droves.  I’m talking about the majestic, beautiful Canadian goose.

I remember smiling the day they arrived.  “Oh, look, honey,” I said to my husband.  “We have geese.  Let’s see, there’s one, two…120!”

I was okay for a while.  They seemed to be content to stay on the circle in front of the house, until one day one goose decided to venture forth.  Did you know geese migrate?  And when one migrates…the others follow?  You guessed it.  Soon I had one, two. . . 120 geese in my front yard, leaving me all kinds of slippery “presents.”

I called my homeowner’s association. “What are you going to do about this?” I demanded.  To which they replied, “It’s a wild bird, Donnell, they’re protected.  What do you expect us to do about them?”

The soup kitchen came to mind, but that appeared out of the question.  So, I had a little talk with “my” birds.  That’s right, because they reside in the circle, and love my yard primarily, my neighbors christened them “mine.”

Reasoning with this great gaggle, I ordered them to stay on the circle, and for heaven’s sake, I cried, stay out of the street, where they were blocking traffic and likely to get ran over.

Do you think they listened?  It became clear I had problem birds.
I decided to put a broom by my front door.  That way when they ventured off the circle, into the street, I would go outside and herd them back onto the reservation. (Note:  Don’t be alarmed by the broom–I couldn’t have caught one if I tried.)  Back to my chasing days, they merely laughed at me, so did my neighbors and so did a construction crew who drove by, saying, “Go lady, go lady!”

Finally, my husband said to me, “Honey, it’s goose droppings, it’s fertilizer, I don’t think you’re going to win this one.  And because I had a book to finish, I albeit and reluctantly, gave up the chase.

Since I’ve had ample opportunity to study the Canadian geese, I thought I’d share.  The Canadian goose mates for life and can live anywhere from ten to twenty-four years.  When nesting, they choose high grass to hide their eggs, but they graze in cropped fields to avoid predators.

While grazing, one goose stands guard, and then demonstrating an amazing internal clockwork, the guard puts its head down and another bird takes over.  If you ever have time to observe, it’s quite something to see Mother Nature in action.

Do NOT turn your back on a goose, particularly if it feels threatened.  They BITE!  Finally, the reason you see so many during the day is that they fly by night—that survival thing again.

In the late 1800s, early 1900s this beautiful bird was hunted almost to extinction for the popular goose down in pillows and vests.  Soon when they were in danger of disappearing forever, governments put this species on the International endangered list.

Personally, I think when a flock of birds brings down an airline carrier we’ve got a problem, and we need to take the Canadian goose off the endangered list, but next time, use common sense and not eradicate this beautiful bird into extinction.

I still have a love/hate relationship with Canadian geese.  They are messy houseguests and have yet to pick up after themselves.  But clearly, they are smarter than me.  I also think the species can teach mankind a thing or two.  They are intensely loyal and know the value of family.