You wouldn’t be surprised to see some waterfowl along the canal, but the Geese at Widewaters and the other parks along Market Street are out of hand again this year.
While they are majestic birds and their goslings are cute, their droppings are a nuisance and their aggressive behavior can be intimidating. They stand around in droves, or packs, or technically, flocks, on the recreation path and act like they own the place. If you challenge them, they begrudgingly move, just enough to let you pass, honking as they do. And whatever you do, don’t approach their chicks!
The problem isn’t their presence, so much, as their total lack of fear of humans. No one dares challenge them, lest some animal-lover take offense. The real animal-loving thing to do would be to hold an occasional jihad on them and chase them off, putting the fear of man into them. I’m not advocating hurting them at all, just teaching them, for their own sake, to be cautious of humans as most other wild animals are.
And if we could just get them to wear diapers or use a pooper-scooper, life would be great!
There is a nice big park near us that has several large ponds and is full of all sorts of interesting wildlife. Among these are way too many geese. They stay year-round, and the state has ordered people to stop feeding them as this is partly why. They hang out in large flocks at the park with ducks, white geese, pigeons, and the occasional seagull amongst them. I think I told you once how one gander was challenging cars and would not let traffic through. We had to back up and turn around. There is always one boss who looks out for all the others.
That’s why I don’t give in to them. When I walk and they are hogging the path, I keep right on coming and make them move. Gotta show them who’s boss!
They take their sweet time moving, but I haven’t yet had one challenge me.
But the poop is getting out of hand. Even with all the rain we’ve had recently, the pavement is foul (or fowl) with it. There’s barely room between piles to step around them.
I haven’t seen the goslings lately, though. Either they all got their grown-up feathers at once and all look the same, or they’re hiding somewhere.
I did stop and let one goose get out of my way the other day. It had a bad leg and was hobbling to move out of my way. I figured I could give a handicapped goose some slack…