Living Along the Appomattox – Canada Geese
May 18 '03
The Bottom Line The Canada Goose is good, either on the pond on a big platter!
(N.B. Many (well, ok, at least two!)of you have been clamoring to read my column, published weekly in the Appomattox Times-Virginian newspaper. And this despite the fact that most of them consist of large helpings of heartwarming, innocuous fluff. However, to allay further urgings on the part of my fans, I have decided to re-publish selected columns here in the Writers Corner. This is exactly how they look in the paper, sorry about the lack of witty paragraph headings; my editor can't quite master their use....)
Canada Geese (Branta canadensis), have become such ubiquitous pests in recent years that it is often difficult to remember that they are one of our most magnificent water fowl and an important game bird as well. During the 19th century these birds were so numerous on the Chesapeake Bay that hunters would slaughter hundreds at a time with huge guns then collect them from the water. They were nearly hunted to extinction.
That was then. Today the Canada Goose has managed to adapt remarkably well to the changes modern living has brought to the east coast flyway. So well have they adapted that many are year-round residents eschewing the long flight to Canada and back every year for the ease and luxury of golf-course living. Thanks to the thousands of acres planted in corn every year, this bird has easy pickings when it comes to dinner. One only has to drive north over the Bay Bridge on Rt. 301 to see gigantic flocks of Canada Geese, busy gleaning the harvested corn fields every autumn.
This abundance of food, available nearly all winter, made possible this bird’s remarkable recovery. Add to that the human propensity to impound water in farm ponds and ornamental or recreational lakes and the picture is complete. Instead of confining themselves to the area immediately adjacent to the Chesapeake Bay, the geese are now able to spread out to the west and are as at home in the Blue Ridge as their distant relatives ever were gobbling aquatic grasses near St. Mary’s on the Bay.
At the Weyr, geese are always welcome visitors. So welcome, in fact, that we have even imported them, at great expense, from distant states. There was a time when the geese came to our farm freely and stayed around to swim in our pond and pick up after the sheep and horses. Then that evil day dawned when emus became resident here. Within a few months those wretched emus had driven all geese and guineas from the pasture and spent the rest of their time terrorizing the sheep, horses, and cats. But that is another story for another time….
This year in late winter a large crate containing a mated pair of adult Canada Geese arrived from Oklahoma. These birds are pinioned and cannot fly. However, no one has told them this and they are able to achieve awesome height by running down hill into a stiff breeze. For their first few months here, while they were forgetting about their natal pond in Oklahoma and adjusting to Virginia, I spent an awful lot of time herding them back into their enclosure. Finally, after a bad scare when I feared the worst but found the pair strolling nonchalantly along the lane on their way to the Appomattox River, they had to be confined in the chicken yard.
Bill and I built them a large enclosure containing a small goose pool and some of our finer lilac bushes. The birds then settled down quickly and stopped trying to walk back to Oklahoma. We had high hopes for goslings this spring but, so far, all our pair does is eat, destroy water lilies, and run cats from under the lilacs.
They do one other thing, however, the next best thing to nesting and hatching a brood of young. Our tame, pinioned birds attract wild birds from the surrounding area. Every day a pair or two of wild geese come coasting in to the excited honks of our resident birds. For a while frantic honking ensues, our birds defending their enclosure, the new birds encouraging them to fly away to the big lake yonder. Eventually everyone settles down and the visitors graze contentedly in the pasture and our pair hunker down by their fence with one eye on the strangers.
Hopefully this regular invasion will continue and result in some of these wild birds becoming permanent guests. We enjoy watching these clumsy but dignified birds as they graze in the pasture and don’t begrudge them a little shelled corn now and then either. They may be noisy nuisances at the golf course but homeless Canada Geese are always welcome at the Weyr.
Questions or comments? Email Pamela at Pamela@thedragonweyr.com
(This column originally appeared in the May 14, 2003 issue of the Appomattox County, Virginia, Times-Virginian.)
© 2003 Pamela Matlack Klein
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