Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help geese

this year on my pond i have about 12 geese hanging around,only one couple with little ones.the pond is 2 and a half acres and isolated. i do not live here but have a cabin,my question is a] will they come back each year b]will there #s grow c]should i be concerned as some say they are a nusance. thanks guys

12 Geese in 2 1/2 acres will produce what most of us would consider an overabundance of natural lubricant, with associated possible water quality problems. I personally try to discourage permanant geese residents (there's no easy way for me to keep visiting geese out unless I patrolled 24/7). You might be more apt to be concerned if you 1) swim a lot, 2) eat fish a lot, or 3) have very fertile water that you don't want too much bloom in. If you have very clear (low fertility) water, maybe you want the geese.

Hi Giz, I had the same situation a year ago. I don't stay at my place full time and I tried to run them off, and was fairly effective - except for 2 that stayed, and had 3 babies. This year I had one pair that I never saw until they and their 5 babies waddeled into the pond one day, and one set that nested right out in the open and couldn't care less when I fished 20' away. Well, they cranked out 6 little pooping machines. I think they were here last year. They do make a mess, but aren't that bad. My main concern is what to expect next year. I'm afraid the word is going to go thru their colonies like uh s*** thru a goose, and I'll have wall-to-wall "flying toilets" next year. I'd try to run them off.

gizmo, one of the problems is that one pair can become 100 very quickly. Once they get established, they are very difficult to get rid of.

Hi:
I have only had my pond for 4 years but I have had the same two geese for three of those years. I always shoot at geese that land at my pond. One of the geese that is a permanent resident tries to run other geese off the property. The one will not run a group of 5 or more, but does a nice job with stragglers. I had 66 geese on my 1.5 acre pond a while ago. And the resident was squaking something bad. I do not have many that try to stay around, but the residents do not care if I fish or not.
Did have a weird experience with their nest this year, I have a small island that they nest on, problem with that, is that I hit floating golf balls on that island. This year they gathered up 8 golf balls and nursed them with thier 4 eggs, EGGS did not hatch. I assumed they gathered them before they laid and they gave up on them?

generally I do not have a problem with the geese wanting to stay around, I just thought it was because the resident geese are mean?

thanks guys,im worried about them mucking up the pond water,its spring fed and clear.the geese even nested on top of the beaver den.there are also 4 or 5 wild ducks,they are all quiet and fun to look at but.....are they good for ponds in general?, as they are a part of the enviorment.love this site.

Brian shares a good CG story ...pretty dang funny. So what do you think was happenin' here? Did they presume that the G balls were eggs that some predator nearly stole, so the CG replaced them in the nest? Were the G balls responsible for the egg duds? Where's Norm Kopecky when you need him!

To me this is strange because a goose egg is about three times the size of a golf ball. My two geese are still there but they have not laid any more eggs. This will be the first year they have not produced goslins

For the past 4-5 years, I've had a pair of Canada geese show up every spring. They have never nested though. I suspect it may have something to do with my location to the Hudson River, which offers better protection. I did have a squadron of 17 land one day but it was a short layover. Two I can tolerate, 17 is far too many.

Did you guys catch the comment made by Mike Mitchell on page 25 of the current issue of PB about unmowed buffer strips along a ponds edge to discourage waterfowl.

this topic hits home. we've had a pair of CG(the same pair?) for the last 6 or 7 seasons. both the CG and local mallards have their youngins on our (formerly) seasonal pond cause (i surmise) there's no LMB in it. in the early spring, they come up from the 5 ac. ranch pond (which has LMB) when time to nest.

this year the CG had 5 goslings, and we watched them dwindle to then 4, then 3, then 2..........then they left with the two survivors that'd grown pretty big. we have fox, coyote, mountain lion, lots of owls, hawks, etc.....lots of things that'd like the youngins.

the first year the CG nested, the female settled on the roof of an old outhouse on the property. at first I thought she'd been bitten by a rattler or something. she stayed motionless for a week w/ her head draped over the side of the roof. then one day mom and dad and half a dozen youngins were paddling around in the pond.......

the CG have yet to congregate in large numbers, and like you Russ, I can tolerate a pair or maybe even two....but no more....just w/ the one pair we have enough droppings to fertilize 12 acres.

from my observation, the unmowed tall grass along pond edge has been good cover for the waterfowl....i've seen mallard, grebe, coot, wood duck, killdeer, black crown night heron, great blue heron, egret, kingfisher, all visit or will be nesting in area around pond. our 50 to 100 resident turkey also like it. we have at least half a dozen nesting pair every year. maybe mowing would discourage everybody in my case???

my property is in a high coyote area so maybe they will be kept in check,i will weed whack along the edge that is grass to rid cover protection.like i said i do not mind them being there aslong as there #s remain low.thanks for the suggestions keep them coming.

Birds do goofy things. I havetwo small ponds in the back that are side by side. A male mallard was swimming in one while the female swam in the other. Go figure!

I and the dog run off any geeze that land in the ponds. We just keep following them around the shoreline and if they can't take the hint I start heaving rocks their way. They usually get the hint and fly off.