Update on our previous posts about the geese…The geese have left the pond.
Well that was an experience and a total mess left from the geese each and every day. I forget which way it is but it’s either 2 or 3 geese equal one cow for the fertilizer left behind each day. There is a little difference between the two, where the cow may leave a large spot of fertilizer but the geese drop these little bombs, what seems every few feet around the pond and in the water. Not a pretty sight and not at all healthy for the pond.
Ok back to the goose story, in recent posts we talked about the geese setting up home at our pond, typically we have kept them away from the pond using the fountain is the biggest deterrent and the use of the Swan Decoy and Coyote decoy have helped as well, but this year winter held on too long keeping ice on the pond where we couldn’t get the fountain in and totally forgot about the decoys. Yep next year we’ll cut a hole in the ice to get the fountain in and get the decoys out early. Just remember to move the decoys to a different location every couple days.
A Couple things we noticed with the geese hanging out until the young ones hatched and finally left for some reason. 
Poppa goose hung out at our upper small pond and would sit on the dam as if it was his kingdom to watch over and to keep an eye out for predators that might go after mommy goose sitting on the eggs. One time we were at the pond and mom got off the eggs then ended up visiting her mate at the upper pond, all seemed fine for a little bit but poppa goose started to push her back down the dam to get back on the eggs.
Then a couple other times we saw this protection in action. We happened to startle momma goose and she started squawking, here comes poppa goose looking mean and a weird wing spread to look like he was big and mean to scare us away. Two other times this happened one was the terodactyl (Blue Heron) came into land and poppa goose took off and kept it from landing. And the other was a windy day and the turkey buzzards took advantage of the wind flying low and catching the lift from the wind hitting the trees, poor poppa goose was getting tired trying to shoo them away.
Finally after what seemed like two months the little ones hatched, cute little fur balls and funny to watch them hang with mom and dad for protection and once they got back in the water they would try to still walk on water instead of paddle but after a day they got the hang of it. We got to see them for almost a week walking around the ponds swimming feeding and leaving their nutrient bombs everywhere, until they headed off into the woods and hasn’t been back since, yeah!
Hopefully they have left our pond for good but next year will be even more trying as now there will be 9 geese wanting to come back to their nesting place.
Now that we have all these little nutrient piles around & in the pond from the geese we’ll need to keep up on our use of the Pond Clarifier (bacteria) treatments to naturally clean up these nutrients, reduce muck and more benefits. While leaving the Aeration system to take care of water movement, adding oxygen to the pond and prevent fish kills, it will also help to precipitate out the fecal coliform.
Related Posts:
Spring Arrived at WhatPond
Spring & Wildlife at the Pond
