Jeff-Widgnwhacker-Wallis
06-18-2007, 04:27 PM
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Avery Pro-Staffer Chris Cartwright and his son Cache recently helped out in a banding operation in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Wildlife wranglers round up gigantic gaggle of geese
Wild birds had become urban pests
By Liesl Goecker
The Salt Lake Tribune
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/6546/airboatcopyxh5.jpg
The battle started at 5 a.m. Thursday, and three hours later, the volunteer troops were showing off their scars.
"A goose scratched me," said Lauren Orme, 5, of Salt Lake City, pointing to the thin bloody line on her upper arm, her hair full of feathers and a bird not much smaller than herself squirming in her arms.
Orme was one of about 30 volunteers helping a team from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources round up and relocate Canada geese nesting at the Lee Kay Center in west Salt Lake City. As part of the urban goose banding project, now in its second year, DWR started capturing urban Canada geese at various locations Monday, said Tom Aldrich, migratory game bird coordinator. An estimated 1,400 have now been relocated to nonurban areas.
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Complaints about the geese and their waste are pretty much constant, Aldrich said, especially in the summer, when people are more likely to be in areas inhabited by the fowl: golf courses and public parks.
Ten years ago, the geese weren't such a problem. The Salt Lake area was a brief stop in the birds' winter migration to Arizona. But the handful of geese that started to stay behind in the city taught their goslings to return yearly as well.
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"They're just very adaptive," said Rich Hansen, waterfowl management area supervisor. "When they find a safe haven they take advantage."
Safe havens are places with lots of grass and water, Hansen added, which is why parks, golf courses and condominium complexes are so popular.
A lack of predators in the urban environment is also a reason the birds continue to stay, Aldrich said, as is a decade of mild winters.
Now, 3,000 Canada geese inhabit Salt Lake City during the summer months, and 6,000 to 8,000 are here in the winter.
"The city can accommodate some, but it's at those levels that it becomes a problem," Aldrich said.
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/3629/chris1copyzw2.jpg
Which is why volunteers and DWR employees herded geese into pens to be tagged, taking advantage of the birds month-long molting, when they are unable to fly. Adult geese were relocated south, to Clare Lake by Delta and the juvenile birds were taken to the marshes north of Great Salt Lake.
The separation is important, said Sean Morgan, wildlife technician. The young birds taken to the north will mix with wild adult birds. Hopefully, he said, they will learn normal migratory patterns and not return to the city.
It seems to be working. Only 20 percent of the adult birds relocated last spring were recaptured on Thursday, and no juvenile fowl returned, Aldrich said.
But the returning adult birds were the trickiest to capture.
"These birds know this routine; they know what's going on," Morgan said. It's almost impossible to catch a returning goose, he added.
That didn't keep many from trying. Briant Romney, 37, of Bountiful, after helping to corral the geese into the holding pen, carried geese from the cage to the tagging area. Romney said he's noticed the increasing number of Canada geese in Bountiful, mainly on the golf courses. As a lifelong duck and goose hunter, he decided to help, bringing his 7-year-old son, Briant, with him.
Volunteers such as Orme and Romney and son are indispensable, Aldrich said. The process of herding, penning, tagging and relocating the birds is labor-intensive, and it would be too expensive to use only DWR staff.
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/3791/chris2copyqa0.jpg
"We try to go to the areas with the largest number and greatest problems and try to get them out of there," Aldrich said.
Story provided courtesy of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Pictures provided by APS Chris Cartwright
Avery Pro-Staffer Chris Cartwright and his son Cache recently helped out in a banding operation in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Wildlife wranglers round up gigantic gaggle of geese
Wild birds had become urban pests
By Liesl Goecker
The Salt Lake Tribune
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/6546/airboatcopyxh5.jpg
The battle started at 5 a.m. Thursday, and three hours later, the volunteer troops were showing off their scars.
"A goose scratched me," said Lauren Orme, 5, of Salt Lake City, pointing to the thin bloody line on her upper arm, her hair full of feathers and a bird not much smaller than herself squirming in her arms.
Orme was one of about 30 volunteers helping a team from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources round up and relocate Canada geese nesting at the Lee Kay Center in west Salt Lake City. As part of the urban goose banding project, now in its second year, DWR started capturing urban Canada geese at various locations Monday, said Tom Aldrich, migratory game bird coordinator. An estimated 1,400 have now been relocated to nonurban areas.
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/5561/cache1copyrt7.jpg
Complaints about the geese and their waste are pretty much constant, Aldrich said, especially in the summer, when people are more likely to be in areas inhabited by the fowl: golf courses and public parks.
Ten years ago, the geese weren't such a problem. The Salt Lake area was a brief stop in the birds' winter migration to Arizona. But the handful of geese that started to stay behind in the city taught their goslings to return yearly as well.
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/5954/cache2copyzs6.jpg
"They're just very adaptive," said Rich Hansen, waterfowl management area supervisor. "When they find a safe haven they take advantage."
Safe havens are places with lots of grass and water, Hansen added, which is why parks, golf courses and condominium complexes are so popular.
A lack of predators in the urban environment is also a reason the birds continue to stay, Aldrich said, as is a decade of mild winters.
Now, 3,000 Canada geese inhabit Salt Lake City during the summer months, and 6,000 to 8,000 are here in the winter.
"The city can accommodate some, but it's at those levels that it becomes a problem," Aldrich said.
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/3629/chris1copyzw2.jpg
Which is why volunteers and DWR employees herded geese into pens to be tagged, taking advantage of the birds month-long molting, when they are unable to fly. Adult geese were relocated south, to Clare Lake by Delta and the juvenile birds were taken to the marshes north of Great Salt Lake.
The separation is important, said Sean Morgan, wildlife technician. The young birds taken to the north will mix with wild adult birds. Hopefully, he said, they will learn normal migratory patterns and not return to the city.
It seems to be working. Only 20 percent of the adult birds relocated last spring were recaptured on Thursday, and no juvenile fowl returned, Aldrich said.
But the returning adult birds were the trickiest to capture.
"These birds know this routine; they know what's going on," Morgan said. It's almost impossible to catch a returning goose, he added.
That didn't keep many from trying. Briant Romney, 37, of Bountiful, after helping to corral the geese into the holding pen, carried geese from the cage to the tagging area. Romney said he's noticed the increasing number of Canada geese in Bountiful, mainly on the golf courses. As a lifelong duck and goose hunter, he decided to help, bringing his 7-year-old son, Briant, with him.
Volunteers such as Orme and Romney and son are indispensable, Aldrich said. The process of herding, penning, tagging and relocating the birds is labor-intensive, and it would be too expensive to use only DWR staff.
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/3791/chris2copyqa0.jpg
"We try to go to the areas with the largest number and greatest problems and try to get them out of there," Aldrich said.
Story provided courtesy of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Pictures provided by APS Chris Cartwright