Canadian Geese Question

[lindapalm]

We have a pond that a pair of geese visit daily, and have mated in. After a week or two, another goose began following the first pair around our lawn and in the water. The male of the pair tried chasing him away, but this goose continues to follow the pair around. Wherever they are, within a half an hour the other one will show up, and stalk them. I know nothing about geese, but hope someone does, cause I'm curious. Why doesn't he find a mate of his own, or is it possible he's one of their babies from last year?

[kathryn]

Not sure, seems they are monogamous, no real reason for the male to be seeking anothers female unless his mate has died.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.co.../canada-goose/

I'd say, I guess he just really likes the girl and it's going to come down to whichever of the males is most dominant will win her over. Canada Geese are all over the place, they probably are just battling for turf because that are so overpopulated.

[Gail P]

It could be a juvenile that just doesn't yet have his own mate. They usually don't begin reproducing until they're 2-3 years old. Springtime is usually a noisy, active time for them during the mating season, and even though they're paired off they will still scuffle with each other. Once they get into nesting the female with sit on the nest while the male stands guard.

Do you enjoy having geese in your pond, or not? If not, now would be the time to discourage them, before nesting and rearing young takes place. If you have 3 geese now, in about a month you'll have 10 or so. And more the next year, and the year following...they return to their natal site to raise their own young so each year the population grows as the original adults return and continue to reproduce and their young mature and also add to the population. They'll usually lay 2-9 eggs per nest and raise an average of 5 goslings per nest. Each goose deposits in excess of 1 1/2 pounds of feces daily which will quickly accumulate on the ground surrounding the pond and the water will become pretty contaminated as well. There's a park on the river in my town that used to have the beaches closed for part of each summer because the water quality was so bad from the geese. That hasn't happened the last couple of years because I work there as well as along all the municipal riverfront areas in town with 2 of my dogs and keep the geese away. I don't have the opportunity to prevent them from nesting in the area (can't find where they do, I have my suspicions where but that's private land not municipal so I don't have access) so instead I go in daily and we herd the geese away all during the summer months, making them swim downstream away from the public areas. Once the goslings are fully fledged and the adults are finished molting instead of just making them swim away we get them flying and they then leave the area.

[lindapalm]

GailP, this is our first year here, and right now we only have the three geese. It just seems so sad that the third one doesn't find his own mate, and keeps shadowing the other two. Its not like theres a shortage of females. My husband said the same thing you did, we can't let them stay all summer and have more coming in. We use our pond water for outside hoses and washing dark loads in the washer, and even though its got more than one filter and a lot of chlorine in the tank, you still don't want to add more bacteria to it if you can help it. I read that you can get some type of plastic mesh to put around the pond, the geese won't step on it. Its either that, or let our border collie out. Thanks for the answers.

[lindapalm]

Kathryn, I was shocked to see those little suckers can live up to 24 yrs.

[Gail P]

Originally Posted by lindapalm

GailP, this is our first year here, and right now we only have the three geese. It just seems so sad that the third one doesn't find his own mate, and keeps shadowing the other two. Its not like theres a shortage of females. My husband said the same thing you did, we can't let them stay all summer and have more coming in. We use our pond water for outside hoses and washing dark loads in the washer, and even though its got more than one filter and a lot of chlorine in the tank, you still don't want to add more bacteria to it if you can help it. I read that you can get some type of plastic mesh to put around the pond, the geese won't step on it. Its either that, or let our border collie out. Thanks for the answers.

Check out my website (in my signature line) Let the border collie out

If you don't want them there for the summer you need to move them on ASAP. Right now is prime mating and nesting season. If they get a nest established it will be more difficult getting them to move on. And once the goslings hatch (28 days) you can forget moving them until early-mid August because they won't be able to fly until about then.

[Etown_Chick]

around these parts, the Park Rangers find the nests and put some type of oil on the eggs to keep them from maturing. If this is something you want to do, let me know and I'll find you some info on it.

Definately don't need the little honkers taking over your pond.