Get Your Geese in a Row

We are usually encouraged to keep our ducks in a row, but what about our geese?

My friends in Indianapolis have these "Americanized" Canadian Geese roaming around all year.  There are in the mall, eating at the drive-in, and terrorizing the coaches and kids at the schools.

Just in case the geese don't already seem entitled enough, because they are considered a migrating species they are protected.

It seems people and more native fowl deserve more protection from these interlopers.  Indy is warm enough in the winter they aren't compelled to go farther south and it's cool enough in the summer that the cool lakes of Canada don't seem that appealing.

Little can be done about them, and while I recall a couple families of foxes on the school property, there were not enough predators to control the population.  The geese can be a little nasty, or territorial, when it comes to their little ones.  One time one of the school's coaches was attacked by an over-protective mom and had to defend himself with a bat.  The goose struck out.

You only see the cuteness for a short time in the spring when mom, dad, and the kids head out for a swim or walk across the street to greener grass at the neighbors.  After the cute phase is over, you just have more waste machines making themselves at home in space far from what is supposed to be home.

For the most part, I've not noticed the black and white headed birds staying as long around south Wisconsin.  The winter is too cold and if they get here, they might as well stay on their plane another hour or two to get home to see family and friends who chose not to go to Texas last winter.

The family of five in the picture were swimming on Cox Lake last weekend, but the gander indicated the long-term plans were to get back home. 

I hope so, Canadian Geese are pretty to look at flying in their "V" formations over those of us in fly-over country, but just like human guests and fish - after a few days they can start to smell things up.