Today we saw our first flying Canada goose since early June. We cleared sixteen of them from a school baseball field in southern Westchester and four from the grounds of a seminary.
These geese and their young have been flightless during a one month period in the goose calendar known as the summer molt. Starting in early June geese shed all their flight feathers. It takes a full month for them to grow back. During this time, sound goose control practice is to stop “walk-ins” invading our customers’ ponds or waterways and adjacent lawns.
The combination of lush lawns bordering water is an attractive proposition for land-bound Canada geese during the molt. They provide food and protection. The art of good goose control is to prevent them gaining a foot-hold on any property with similar characteristics. The combined force of swimming dogs or handlers in kayaks in the water with trained Border collies on the land has to be brought to bear day and night.
Canada geese tend to shed their flight feathers at the same time allowing relatives that were unsuccessful in the nesting season to help raise the young in a tight family group. They also re-grow their feathers at the same time. This coincides with the maturation of the goslings enabling the whole family group to take off together to seek greener pastures. However, not all geese start and end the molt at the same time. Some start in June, others in July. Nearly all geese are in the air again by mid August.
So what happens now? Expect geese problems to escalate as large groups of birds leave their water havens (ponds, wetlands, rivers and bays) at dawn. They will fly to well-manicured, watered lawns nearby. They will feed for as long as they are allowed, or until the sun becomes uncomfortably hot, at which time they will return to their ponds or waterways. They will stay in the water until the early evening when they might head out for a quick feed before dark. On cool, wet days they will stay at their feeding grounds all day – if permitted.
School playing fields and parks are particularly vulnerable as Canada geese emerge from the molt. This will be the pattern across the second half of July (the hottest two weeks of the year) and through the dog days of August. Speaking of dogs, you’ll be seeing more of the GEESE OFF! Border collies.
