It's a boat time....

 

It's been a difficult week.  Our disruptive geese have shown absolutely no sign of leaving and as the days have worn on they have become increasingly problematic.  Not only did they start to become incredibly territorial they had begun to take their anger out on Egwina and the babies.   This sadly resulted in us losing one of the ducklings.

We'd said from the start that our little pond couldn't really support geese and their goslings should they nest.  The levels of destruction were getting to the point where I was worried that the grasses wouldn't recover and our wildlife detrimentally affected for the summer months.  It was time for action.

There is a fascinating article on line entitled 15 tips to get rid of geese.  Believe me when I say we have tried every single one.  Most of them twice.  Roping off the pond with shiny Christmas ribbon was a success at keeping them off the banks for around a day, at which point they get used to that and ignore it.  We've tried playing flight calls loudly though a speaker, rocks shaken in jars, water pistols, 3 dogs of varying sizes from my daughters Sausage to our Scott and even our neighbours beautiful Alaskan Malamute.  The geese were unperturbed by all.  Laser pointers were suggested, shone on the water in front of them.  At one point I got up in the night for the loo and found myself hanging out of the bedroom window jiggling lasers.....my neighbours by now must have really thought I'd lost the plot.

After another weekend of bullying and actually being flown at, yesterday we reached break point.  My research suggested it was all about disruption and making them feel unsafe both off and on the water. We put the boat on the water and sent my daughter out whilst Steve, my son, daughter in law and I made lots of noise on the bank.  After an hour of geese looking rather bemused by our actions, we gave up and ordered a pizza.

I woke up this morning to geese still here and admitted defeat.  My neighbour, who is equally disturbed by their presence, not in the least because they have been chasing away the adult male ducks who have then taken up residence on her tiny garden pond, had told me it was possible to have them shifted.  I did a little research and it seemed as the landowner I could have them moved, but that wasn't going to end well for the geese and thats not something I could have lived with.  So I resigned myself to the fact we now had two geese.

I made myself a cuppa, sat down and heard the familiar babble of geese chatting, with everything crossed I looked out of the window and off they flew.  Immediately the ducklings were shooting around the pond enjoying the sun and peace was restored.  Now lets cross everything that the don't return!

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