Posted on 01/07/2006 7:03:52 AM PST by blau993
I need some advice, and this group may be able to help. A flock of geese (Canada) has landed on the water next to our house and has apparently decided that water and my lawn are where they would like to winter over. We had this happen a few years ago, and they tore the daylights out of my lawn and left enough "fertilizer" to last a lifetime. My two labs are pretty good at dispersing them (the younger is nicknamed "Goosechaser"), but this bunch is persistent and keeps coming back. I am thinking of taking it to the next level. It is out of season, and I live within the Annapolis city limits, so firearms are not an option. However, I am thinking "air rifle." I don't know that much about them, but I was thinking kind of low velocity and steel BBs rather than pellets (need to be eco-friendly and all that). I am thinking that a few pellets to the rump ought to cause a goose no lasting harm but, combined with the dogs, might encourage them to move on. Thoughts?
That's considered torture and John McCain will find it offensive to all that is holy.
3 Geese [boned & cubed] 1/2 c Flour 1/2 c Oil 2 (envelopes) onion soup mix 5 Carrots [quartered] 4 Celery stalks [chopped] 8 sm Onions 2 c Frozen green beans 8 oz Fresh mushrooms [sliced] 1 ts Sweet basil 1 ts Tarragon 2 (cloves) Garlic [crushed] 2 Bay leaves 6 lg Potatoes [peeled & quartered Cavendars Greek seasoning to taste
Rinse goose meat and pat dry, then coat with a mixture of flour, and salt & pepper to taste. Brown in oil in a skillet. Place in large roaster and add water to cover, and the remaining ingredients except potatoes. Bake at 375 degrees for 2 hours. Reduce heat to 275 degrees, add the potatoes and bake an additional hour or `til goose is tender. Thicken sauce if desired, remove bay leaves, and serve.
I've found that Rottweilers do a pretty good job of getting rid of the geese.
airhorns...
find some mp3 files of large cats making music and serenade the geese...
slingshots (won't kill them, but will irritate them)...
you'll need to keep at them until they get the idea they are not wanted
What an excelent idea and doesn't that sound like fun?
This Alabama lady salutes you and heards to the fridge to put the paint balls in the freezer.
Yea, I was just gettting ready to ping you about this, I remembered your problem a year or so ago. How are you koi?
That sounds yummy!
Maybe you could buzz the flock in your plane. :)
Hang a couple of long "clothes lines" across the space and then hang all those free AOL CD's on the "long clothes lines".....birds do not like those "reflective" flashes....spooks em pretty good.
That in addition to your doggies will do well....
Also you can go to your local sporting goods store a gander or cabela's etc and get a few bottles of predator scent, add that to a few gallons of water in a pump up bug sprayer and add some cayenne pepper powder etc to make their food taste a bit crappy.....
Ya might also consider playing one of the johhny stewart coyote call tapes or CD's quietly over a speaker at night.....
Lots of passive possibilities......even a simple air-horn, the kind on top of a can of air will do the trick if it's the same flock...they'll learn.
Just some opinions.....
I hit one in the back with a golf ball off a low (poorly hit) drive. The goose said, "gwaak!" raised its wings, and went back to eating the fairway.
heck...even my dachshund won't allow ANY birds to land on the front lawn while he's outside.
Might be time to borrow some more dogs.....
Just got back from Mexico and have a lot of catching up to do but Frithguild is right on. They prefer clear escape routes to the water. The easiest thing to do is block the escape route, ideally with native vegetation. That may not be possible right now so an easy solution is to make a string fence along the shore line a few inches off the ground. All the scare tactics in the world won't work if you leave the escape route intact.
Great idea, coyote urine!! It's sold in sporting goods and pet food stores.
You all better hope PETA or Greenpeace aren't reading this. They'll sue you just for harrassing the birds.
I agree. This is going to require some non-traditional thinking.
Use noise, or perhaps you can obtain a bottle of the scent of a natural predator, or something like that. Or a scarecrow. Someone mentioned placing a barrier between the grasses and the water: you can do that with temporary orange plastic snowfence and some stakes.
I remember as a kid being in a cherry orchard that used loudspeakers with random popping and cracking sounds to scare away blackbirds.
Well be carefull, geese are rather a mean lot when pressed. I learned that the hard way sneaking up on one under water when I was a kid. I prefer the Marlin Perkins rocket net myself but they are more expensive than a wildlife critter getter. You might try one of them.
They can be made into purses but are really quite tacky.
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