Canada Goose Population Management

"Remote-controlled amphibious device": beware the rubber duckie.

Foster City announced the first steps in its Canada Goose Population Management program: [bold added]

The first phase of this plan will focus primarily on observation and surveillance, which will begin to take place in the first week of October. Though the visibility of this work to the public may be limited, community members could notice goose tracking cameras hung in trees at the previously identified parks, or uniformed Wildlife Innovation staff monitoring the bird population...

Following the observation and surveillance phases, Wildlife Innovation staff will transition to tracking the Canada Goose population in early November. This effort will include banding select birds with GPS tracking devices around their feet and neck. Application and operation of the GPS devices is in no way harmful to the birds. Community members who observe banded birds should not be concerned – federal and state permits have been issued for this work.

Wildlife Innovation staff will initiate bird deterrent activities shortly after the tracking efforts are introduced. All the deterrent methods included in the plan are nonviolent and nonlethal. These efforts will include use of a: trained dog and handler; remote-controlled amphibious device; aerial drone with speaker and lights; audio deterrent; handheld laser; and fogging.

We've been given a heads-up to these solutions for Foster City's goose problem, but your humble blogger thinks the clever birds will discover there's little reason to be fearful.

More drastic, potentially lethal steps will probably need to be tried; for example, given the many leashed dogs we see on our walks around town, perhaps the City could suspend its leash laws in Foster City parks temporarily and see if that puts a dent in the problem. Here's hoping we don't need to go that far.

These Geese Will not be Cooked

Ryan Park in July, 2022

We've been writing about Foster City's Canadian-goose problem for years. The NY Times covered it in June. Here's the Chronicle's take: [bold added]

Welcome to Foster City, home to 24 parks and more than 160 acres of open space that collects some 300 pounds of goose poop a day.

Foster City has received national attention for its troubles with Canada geese. Each goose — the city estimates it has between 300 and 400 of them — can produce one or two pounds of droppings a day, turning a park into a minefield. The goose poop requires regular power washings and has contributed to high E. coli levels in parts of the local lagoon. During nesting season the birds can become aggressive, even chasing off small dogs and children.

Non-lethal solutions are being tried.

Earlier this month, Foster City took its most comprehensive action yet, with the city council approving a roughly $400,000 contract with a wildlife company to deter the geese at seven “high impact” parks. Starting sometime in the next month, the company will begin using drones, lasers, balloons and — eventually — dogs to scare or “haze” the birds. The contract, which is active through June 2026, approved nonlethal measures only.

Foster City residents and officials alike are waiting to see whether their latest efforts will make the geese think twice about nesting at a local park. Previous attempts have been mixed. When the city tried strobe lights, residents seemed more bothered than were the geese. Adding fencing around the lagoon kept geese out for a while, but the geese eventually found ways around it. Egg addling — shaking or otherwise damaging newly laid eggs to prevent the embryo from developing — keeps the population from growing too rapidly, but that doesn’t affect the living geese, which can survive for more than 20 years.

I don't have much hope that these methods will put a dent in the problem.

The geese aren't scared of us, though most geese still fly away when humans or dogs chase after them (I speak from personal experience). However, the cost of live geese patrols is prohibitively high. Robot hunters offer promise, but that solution is years away. Meanwhile, Foster City residents should keep looking down when they walk.

Geese: Going Where They're Not Wanted

Ryan Park in July

Although I've been walking Foster City's trails and sidewalks for decades, only recently have waterfowl feces become a noticeable problem.

Foster City has a poop problem, and it doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.

For years the Canadian Goose population has multiplied in the city, which sits right next to the bay and has several parks along a central lagoon that attracts waterfowl from all over. The increase in Canada geese has also brought with it poop in parks, streets and waterways, sparking complaints from residents fed up with the unwanted feces and want the city to manage the geese population.

The City has been mulling "several non-lethal and lethal means" of reducing geese, but an initial proposal to cull 100 geese has been stymied by another group of residents who are opposed to any solution that involves killing birds.

Your humble blogger lives far enough away from the lagoon that the geese haven't posed a significant problem, and I'm content to let the politics play out among those who are most concerned.

However, I do have a relevant historical observation. At one time there were colonies of feral cats living in San Mateo County near water's edge. They were descendants of house cats who were released into the wild by negligent owners. Their numbers increased because of the Bay's plentiful food sources.

The Homeless Cat Network initiated Project Bay Cat to reduce the feline population and even received help from bird lovers who had a common interest in protecting wildfowl from feral cats. Through its program of Trap-Neuter-Release, the cat population was reduced from several hundred to a few dozen who lived out the rest of their non-fertile lives in the wild. Project Bay Cat declared success and was disbanded 4-5 years ago.

Colonies of feral cats bring their own set of health and animal-welfare problems, but one problem we didn't have when they were around was too many geese in Foster City.

Admirable From a Distance

Yesterday I took a walk in Ryan Park, which was crowded with hundreds of Canadian geese.

They were rooting about, looking for the leavings from the crowd of picnickers who had come to watch the fireworks on Monday.

Dozens were waddling on the sidewalk. I could walk right up to them, though when I did so they would turn their head to glance at me sideways in case I was one of those children (or peculiar adults) who liked to chase futilely after winged creatures.

Each generation of ducks and geese becomes less fearful, probably because they've learned that humans are much more likely to feed than threaten them.

The fear went both ways. There were so many waterfowl that images from Hitchcock's The Birds rose unbidden from memory.

I quickened my pace and walked home, taking another route.