A Nature Give and Take

I walked to the top of our rise this morning, a grey, drippy morning, slight chill to the air, enough to warrant a warm wood fire inside. My head was down, I was musing about what to write, coffee in hand. Quiet. I like to get to the top of the rise without having looked back, so that when I turn the expanse of the Green Mountains in the background and the ever changing landscape is always a surprise. As I neared the crest, I brought my head up to look over to the left where Richard and I had felled 2 large ailing birch trees the other day. It had opened up the forest and the view of the far hill nicely. I turned my head straight ahead and I saw them. 3 young deer, grazing. I stopped still in my tracks, silent, and gazed. “Oh, Richard would love this,” I thought. The 2 farther up the hill turned to look at me, curious, as if they were focusing in on an eye chart, while the 1 closest to me continued to munch on grass with relaxed purposefulness. He raised his head and looked my way, and with a start and breathy snort, turned and hopped for cover in the trees, the other 2 following suit, their white behinds and upturned tails so gorgeous, like 19th century frocks. How wonderful!

And a little gift from nature was just what I needed for I, we, have been on the horns of a dilemma lately, namely what to do about the pair of Canada Geese on our pond. This is not a new phenomenon. For the 5 years we’ve resided here, this time of year has meant a pair of Canada Geese – we’re told that usually it’s the same pair every year, or at least one of the offspring – has come to our pond to lay eggs, raise their young (usually 4 gosling), teach them to fend for themselves and fly, and after flying lessons are completed to their satisfaction they leave for another year. This annual visit hasn’t been without issue. The prodigious amounts of goose poop around the edges of our pond, especially when added to our geese’s contribution, has been a gnarly topic. The past 3 years we’ve had our own domestic flock of geese and each year they’ve cobbled together an understanding of co-habitation with the Canadians. Last year it helped that both groups had offspring. This year, however, it’s gotten very contentious. When our geese get anywhere near the pond, they are dive bombed. They really battered and bruised Felicity the other day, she had to submerge and swim underwater most of the pond to get away from them, while I heaved stones from the shore to keep them off.

Compounding all of this is that we think the Canadians whole cycle is off due to the late ice covering on our pond which lasted until 2 weeks ago. If they did lay eggs, they’re no where to be found. When these attacks escalated in ferocity, we decided to discourage them from being here, and went after their eggs, but there are none anywhere near where they nest. Maybe they layed them and the weasel that’s around the pond nabbed them. It wouldn’t’ve been difficult to do. Or they haven’t laid yet and now it’s too late. There’s some frustration in the cycle. But what to do about our geese, that’s my main concern. They love the pond and now they’ve been spooked off it, they’re terrified and pent up, sometimes driven off the pond into the woods and I have to shepherd them back, concerned about them being easy prey for predators in the forest.

As I said, we’ve been trying to discourage the Canadians and run them off. We’ve chased them. Richard’s done some chain sawing of trees over near the pond, a chore he needed and wanted to do, and he discovered that they didn’t like that at all. We’ve taken to getting our .22 out and shooting above and below them. This works to a certain extent, but most of the time now they just sort of hop to another location. We don’t want to shoot them. I feel weird having a gun in my hand to just scare them. And if we got VINS to come relocate them, nothing is preventing another pair from coming in. So … hmmmmmmmmmm? In the grand scheme of things, this is a small concern, but there you have it. Nature.

Have a great day. And any suggestions about what to do are welcome.