Moose Droppings

What’s the Difference Between A Raleigh Goose and A Washington County Goose?

Apr 15, 2007 @ 05:02 pm by Moose

A lot. Rick Martinez a columnist for the N&O and a part time talk radio host(When Rick & Donna fill in on WPTF it’s usually good, to bad they don’t have the regular morning gig.) has brought up an interesting point about the apparent hypocrisy on the part of US Fish & Wildlife and others. Here in Raleigh as in many communities there is a problem with “residential geese” and the Feds over at Fish & Wildlife have approved the use of harassing the geese, killing the eggs, cutting off the available food, and even killing them if possible. As Rick has pointed out this plan sounds pretty familiar because this is the same plan that Navy wants to use in Washington County at the proposed OLF site that Fish & Wildlife and a lot of other folks strongly oppose. So what gives why no public outrage, no Governor Proclamations and photo ops etc.?

Well the difference is Migratory VS Residential. The residential geese are birds that were stocked in back in the 70’s when waterfowl populations were waning and the hopes were that they would join their migratory cousins and boost the population. Well they discovered that a goose born and raised here in Carolina pretty much stays put and for the most part migrates from pond to golf course and back.

Migratory birds travel each year to wintering and summering grounds. The migratory birds as well bounced back with conservation efforts and the securing of important lands for nesting in the North as well as wintering grounds in the South. The National Wildlife Refuge system is an important link in the conservation chain and Pocosin Lakes is extremely important chunk of real estate when it comes to wintering grounds. Migratory birds don’t stop here for the winter learns to like golf courses and the free buffets and decide to stay.

Just by looking at a Canadian Goose it is difficult to tell whether it is a migratory or a residential bird so tagging studies are being done by some states. Here in Wake county and other parts of the state where migratory geese travel through the hunting season is closed part of that time to allow many of them through and to hopefully kill more residential geese once the season opens back up. Residential birds are becoming over populated and efforts need to be taken to help control the population or they could threaten the wintering grounds for the migratory birds.

I’m just amazed that at NC State they have a professor that knows how much a goose craps in a day. They may not be able to beat UNC on the hardwood very much but at least they know their crap. I wonder what Rick’s wife thinks about this issue? I hate to say it but she seems to be the most sensible one when they Co Host. So what do you think Donna?