Canadian Geese.  We have a love hate relationship with them.  They can be dirty birds and they will defend their nests and CAN pick odd unexpected places to nest.

BUT.

They are wildlife. You can read about them on the Pennsylvania Game Commission Website.

Canadian Geese mate for life. In Pennsylvania we have migratory and non-migratory populations.

People get all pissy about them on their properties.  So they buy those metal predator cut-outs. And wonder why they don’t work. Ummm maybe they should occasionaly MOVE them around?  I see these cut-outs at Immaculata and they have never moved since they were put up…which is why you can see the geese right next to them.

Today on NextDoor a thread popped up.  About geese and they are off and running (only sharing this much):

They are talking about East Goshen Township in this thread.  Yes this stuff – goose birth control – exists.  But if the wrong or grossly uneducated try to use this do you all think it will affect JUST geese?  If this were an alternative it would have to be very specifically administered, not just tossed out onto fields by crews cutting fields in parks.

But because it is NextDoor and most of the people on NextDoor seem to think no one else sees their crazy (which is why I blotted out the names of those commenting), these comments popped up:

Ok can I be horrified now? First the whole Vaseline of it all, and oh hell you deserve to be pecked and attacked if you do that.  Secondly the profoundly disturbing pronouncement of someone witnessing “township officials” pour oil on wild goose eggs at some spot at Route 3 and 252.  This is cruel and inhumane on ALL counts.

If this is true at Route 3 and 252, which municipality is this?  Marple? And would they REALLY do that?  I actually e-mailed the township to ask.  Don’t know that they will reply. But I am hoping this is just some thing that DOESN’T actually happen.

An easy way to manage them is to let humans who train field dogs clear the fields of geese.  They used to do that down at Haverford College years ago. And plenty of places employ the services of those who remove the poop.

No solution is perfect but hey don’t we live in Chester County at least partially for the nature? Open space (what’s left of it) etc?

Anyway, the cruelty of humans combined with stupidity is always a dangerous combination, isn’t it?