Baldur

A new Fire Mountain Gems sale catalog came in the mail today. There are several very good deals in it.
The nagging problem is that Baldur promised himself to not buy more beads until he used up the stockpile on hand.
Why do I make myself such silly promises?

Dragon

You'll need to do a whole bunch of beading, then when your stockpile is lessened you can feel good about buying new ones. That or just forget about inconvenient promises made to oneself.

Robindcr8l

OK, now, I am a true animal lover, and I like wildlife as much as the next guy, but really, these geese have GOT to go! This gaggle of geese has somehow decided that my front yard is the perfect migratory stop for the winter. Dragon, I am holding you personally responsible, because they are CANADIAN geese! Now, you seem to have some expertise in different little non-lethal ways of curbing unwanted behaviors in animals. Isn't there some sort of "Goose-away" product I could use? I know Auntie B will recommend a taser, but that will only stun them, not necessarily encourage them to leave. I wish I could post a pic of my driveway and front lawn on here. HUNDREDS of goose turds! HUNDREDS! The gaggle probably only has about 15 geese in it, but apparently the birdseed that falls from my feeder is the high-fiber variety, because those 15 geese produce a LOT of...well...YOU know! HEEELP!

Robindcr8l

By the way, I live in the heart of the city. Roosters and geese belong in the country, don't they? Am I in the twilight zone or what? These geese are on MY lawn only, none of the neighbors.

Off to google "Goose-away"

lilalee

Robin, we live in town too. Every year we get the Canadian geese in our back yard also. They won't be there long. They are just feeding and using your yard as a motel rest stop before they go on. Good fertalizer!! Though they are noisey!!

AuntieB

Robin dear,
Auntie B recalls reading somewhere that if you feed Alka Seltzer tablets to seagulls the pressure of the created gas would build up in their stomachs until they explode. Maybe the same is true of Canadian Geese.
I suppose the resulting carnage might be messier than just goose-poop.
You will need to weigh the advantages versus the disadvantages on this one.

Baldur

The Canadian geese are too distracted by Primrose Pond to bother with my bird feeder run off.
We get literally hundreds at a time but they stay on the pond and never venture ashore.
I think in your case you need to restrict their access to the bird seed.
If they can't get to the seed their interest in your yard will wane.
Try coils of razor wire looping all over the ground beneath your birdfeeders.
A pet puma might help too.

Baldur

You should also definitely bounce this question off of taters in her advice column.
Her answer would definitely be interesting

Robindcr8l

Auntie B, I thank you for your suggestion but I believe the smell of rotting flesh may be even more disturbing than the smell of goose guano. I posted this query on my facebook wall and the best suggestion I've seen so far is some sort of wooden coyote sculpture that supposedly scares the boogers off. Apparently the golf courses use them. Come to think of it, I saw a bunch of these in a farmer's hay field once, and wondered why they were there. Now I know.

Baldur, I was thinking the same thing about the taters column. I think I'll give it a try.

Dragon

LOL at holding me personally responsible for the CANADIAN geese. I assure you I am not their travel agent and will go further to say that most Canadians are rather gracious visitors and we almost never poop on our hosts front lawns.
My thinking was something along the lines as I suggested for keeping herons or storks out of fish ponds. It's called Scarecrow and it attaches to your hose. It's basically a sprinkler with a motion sensor. You only have to turn your hose on the barest amount because it only turns on when something triggers it. The problem with this is that it is still winter and this solution wouldn't work well for you if you're still getting below freezing temperatures. I like the coyote statue idea. Perhaps a trained coyote would work even better! I've heard of airports using border collies and trained falcons to discourage birds from living near the runways. Maybe you could take up falconing.
Otherwise maybe some chicken wire or something to keep them away from the birdseed.
We had friends who lived on one of the small manmade lakes in Calgary when I was growing up. Every year the wife would feed the geese on their backyard, it started with a few geese and quickly became hundreds of them. They had a huge yard and a dock on the lake and every inch of it was covered in Goose Grease. Blech! It didn't make for very nice get togethers in their yard, that's for sure. I can't remember how they got rid on them. I think they just stopped feeding them and they went somewhere else.

Baldur

Of course under a blanket of darkness you could scatter bird seed all over your most annoying neighor's property.
A couple herrings tossed up on their roof would also help.

sheftali52

lmao Dragon--at your contention that you don't normally poop on hosts' lawns!!!

Baldur

How Baldur misses his yearly expedition to Canada.
Robert and I drove to Fredericton every August for a Bear event.
We did this for at least a dozen years.
Finally the couple hosting the event got worn out (it had grown to over 100 men). As a group we outgrew several smaller venues finally ended up at a huge grand hotel downtown. It was always a splendid time.

Baldur

Baldur was able to find the promotional blurb from the last event in 2007:

Summer is around the corner and one event you can bank on is the Canadian Furfest which takes place in Fredericton, New Brunswick from August 2nd thru the 5th and is hosted by the East Coast Bears. The following is from them: "When Larry started FurFest 12 years ago as a small get-together in his back yard he never dreamed the event would grow to become Canada's largest bear party and an international event. FurFest, named after a close encounter of the bear-hug kind, is a giant, gay-friendly family reunion with the opportunity to meet some kissin' cousins.

'FurFest is more like a family reunion of old friends for many participants' says event chair Larry. Over the years the event has also expanded to include many Fredericton activities for participants such as a tour of Kings Landing Historical Settlement, a downtown walking tour, cruises along majestic St. John River on the Carleton II, a tour of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and live entertainment in Fredericton's Historic Garrison District. New for 2007, FurFest will be adding a Friday Downtown Adventure to include the Changing of the Guard Ceremony and tours of the York-Sunbury Museum and Science East".

Qsilv

Baldur - so... what happened to stop it from being held in the hotel?

Robin - I wonder if you could just stretch garden string-netting across a series of short stakes for the weeks the geese are resident...

We kept the local herons from decimating the fish population in our pond by stringing a few strands of fishing line just a couple inches under the water's surface here and there across the shallows. They hated getting their feet tangled in that... grew generally suspicious of the whole pond area.

Baldur

The event ended because the 2 hosts were worn out after doing mountains of preparation work each year. They were get no little support from any other local bears.
All there vacation time each year was spent preparing for this big weekend, I wholeheartedly agree that they did it long enough and now can travel to other people's functions and relax for a change.

The hotel was fantastic and very good to our group. They had courted us for a while before we switched to their venue. We had been going as a group to their lavish Sunday brunch for a good many years.

belladonnis

Hey Robin I know what you mean about goose poop! There are several that migrate to the lake that is on site at the plant where I work. They are beautiful birds.....but......there poop is as big as a mid size dogs!!!! And when you have 50 or more walking around the grounds its a mess!

The plant also had a problems with regular birds flying and nesting around areas of the plant where there poop was a big problem. They installed a sound system that has sound of birds in distress and it has solved the problem. The geese dont fly over these areas either. Perhaps you could find a recording of this and play it out your window for a couple of days, the geese may get the hint!

Baldur

-there +their

The hosts were quite amazing in the amount of thought they put into this party each year. There were BBQs, day trips, dinners, pool parties, tours, dancing, concerts. A great time for everyone attending.
On top of that they went around to local businesses and got special discounts for our group. Many restaurants and stores had signs in their front windows welcoming us. It was quite mindblowing.

I love the town, it is small enough to be slower paced but still had plenty of interesting things to offer.
The locals all seemed very pleasant too.

belladonnis

Of course your yard will sound like a zoo, it does at work!!LOL

Qsilv

Sounds like those hosts left quite a legacy. A blueprint too, really. You've just described the how-to... now of course it takes the doing... and that takes energy. ; >