Posted by Anne (White Rock, Canada) on 18 June 2007 in Animal & Insect and Portfolio.
The man in this picture explained to me something I did not know! At this time of year (beginning of June) the geese lose their flight feathers! He said it takes about three weeks for them to re-grow! The birds cannot fly at all when they first lose them! The man took a run at this group to demonstrate that they would not fly away. I had to stop him because I did not want him to scare them!
Amy - get off the soapbox. Yes! these geese are resident in this area but were currently grounded! People take no notice of them (just like they walk on about their business when I point a camera in their direction) and native Vancouverites don't usually interfere with them at all. It's only people with cameras like me who make any kind of human contact with them. There are laws in the city against feeding the birds. You can get fined for doing so! The City of Vancouver recognizes what you are saying about too much human contact! Vancouver cares very much for its birds and wildlife, and all are protected. They usually fly back and forth across the Bay - but right now they can't! :-(
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I'd forgotten that! I remember hearing that somewhere before.
Unfortunately the overpopulation of geese in my area has done terrible things to several parks here where the waters of the ponds in these parks have been poisoned by goose excrement causing other native species of water fowl and other critters to disappear. It's pretty sad really. The ponds and parks that were once teeming with life are smelly and fallow and gross, covered with bubbling green cyano algea as a result of too much goose poop clogging up the flow raising the nutrient levels too high in the water.
18 Jun 2007 5:49am
@Laurie: Oh! Dear! I can see they would be a problem in parks and ponds. The size of their poops on the grass made me have to be careful where I stepped. These grassy park areas are common along the beach areas all around Vancouver and the grass etc. is quite well groomed - so I guess it gets cleaned up! If I had the time it would be worth looking into. I don't recall seeing any of these birds sitting around urban parks here. They seem to concentrate around the edges of the sea. I'll have to take a look around the geography of New Jersey, the Hudson River etc., as I am a bit hazy as to how far away it is from the ocean. It's a pity they can't round them up, in their non-flying phase, and move them all to the edge of the Atlantic. They should know how to control them somehow, if their pollution is making things unpleasant, and especially if it is killing off the other wildlife species. Maybe it is the geography here that keeps them by the sea as it is only a relatively short flight for them over the sea to other pieces of land, with so many inlets, bays and islands. I've seen them in Stanley Park here, but the lagoon in there is clean. Again, Stanley Park is huge and stretches way out into Burrard Inlet, another piece of the ocean which has the Port of Vancouver and goes inland to many other ports before finally being the main arm of the Fraser River. The Frazer has many arms - in fact the City north of where I live is called Delta - (I am rambling on as one thought comes after another) All these arms are tidal which is what, most likely, keeps them clean. I learned more about the geography of this place during my flights from Richmond which show the whole area, because the plane takes off over the sea and curves around 180 degrees to fly East. Flat maps are much harder to follow and the google ones are OK, except when you zoom in for detail, then you are scrolling East and West and can't see the whole thing at once. Hope they do find a solution to your geese pollution problem without killing them - but it is definitely not healthy to have parks and ponds so polluted with them! :-(
Ooops, sorry Anne. Point made. And I didn't know about them loosing their flight feathers. Wow. Ok, I'm back down on the ground... with the geese! LOL I do like this shot... with the geese waddling away from the man. Good one. ;-)
18 Jun 2007 9:58am
Wow! I learned something today, thanks to both of you for sharing ;)
19 Jun 2007 3:49am
Wonderful shot Anne...and thank you for sharing the commentary...I did not realize they lost those feathers that enabled them to fly.
19 Jun 2007 5:20am
That's something I learned today. Strange kind of thing, that loosing flight feathers! Anyway, it's a great photo. I'm glad your people leave the geese to live in peace.
21 Jun 2007 2:39am
PS. Did you know this is your No. 100th!? Happy 100th, Anne.
22 Jun 2007 12:06pm
@Behrooz: No! Thanks Behrooz - I didn't know! Haven't been keeping track much as have been so busy planting my small garden - there was a lot of work to be done on my soil before new plants could go in. Anyway, just about done all the time consuming stuff - there is more to the story of the day at the dentist - so will try to get cracking on it tonight.
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