By Mark McCurley, Special to the Register
mccurleym1@southernct.edu

MILFORD — City Health Director Dr. A. Dennis McBride announced a program in March, where health officials and trained volunteers would begin “oiling” Canada geese eggs in nests to control the population.

But the health director said recently after several weekends of searching the upper and lower duck ponds behind City Hall, no eggs or nests were found.

McBride went one step further and said he has not found any goslings in the ponds. He said the geese have been doing a lot of “pond hopping,” not rearing the goslings in the ponds.

“The geese have been going to other ponds for sources of food,” McBride said.

McBride said he is very surprised that no eggs, nests or goslings have been found. But he said that doesn’t mean there is not a serious problem. He said the geese have become very elusive.

McBride said residents are still feeding the geese, which is causing the birds health problems. Geese are usually grass eaters, McBride said, but people are feeding them bread and popcorn, which can cause problems such as “angel wings,” when the birds’ wings grow out crooked and cannot fly. McBride urged residents not to feed the geese.

He said the city will start an education program in the fall targeting day care providers and preschools. McBride said if the geese only eat grass, they will be able to fly away from the ponds. He said it’s possible no nests or eggs were discovered by the ponds because the Canada geese are actually coming from Charles Island.

In March, McBride said there were about 100 Canada geese in the two downtown duck ponds. The GeesePeace oiling program was supposed to begin in mid-April.

Staff and volunteers were going to place oil on nonincubated eggs, which prevents oxygen from getting into the eggs and stops the growth of the goslings.

McBride has stressed if an egg is already incubated, no oil would be applied and a gosling would hatch. McBride said the goal of the program was to help control the Canada geese and make it easier to walk downtown. He said the program never would have eliminated the geese. Continued...

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One goose can leave 1 to 4 pounds of droppings, he said. McBride said the Canada geese remain downtown all year. They never migrate north in the spring.

To receive training on how to oil the eggs, McBride said the department went to Greenwich, which has been using the oiling program since 2004.

Laura Simon, field director of the Urban Wildlife Program for the Humane Society of the United States, has said it applauds Milford for adopting the GeesePeace approach.

“We encourage other communities to use this progressive model instead of rounding up and killing geese, which backfires every time due to public outrage and how new geese fly in and repopulate areas where round-ups occurred. The GeesePeace approach is the answer,” Simon said.

Mark McCurley is a Register intern. To receive breaking news first, simply text the word nhnews to 22700. Standard msg+data rates may apply.

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