Canadian Geese are beautiful; but they are also messy, potentially aggressive, and capable of cleaning out your backyard pond of water plants in one or two afternoons. Not to mention potential damage to your lawn and gardens from the presents they leave behind!  The key to keeping geese out of your yard is in knowing the timetable when geese are the most mobile, and targeting them for harassment within that window of time, to discourage nesting behavior in a close proximity to you.

The Goose Calendar of Events

January and February, Geese are generally in their over-wintering areas, beginning to look for mates, and beginning the earliest migrations back to nesting grounds in late February. Canadian Geese spend the majority of March and April looking for the ideal nesting area, or returning to the specific place that they themselves were raised, and setting up a nest.  As part of their “imprinting,” geese will return to the area that they were hatched in, to see if there is enough room for a new nest there with their current mate.  If you have had problems with geese in the past, March is the best time to begin harassing any geese who show up on your property, to discourage nesting, and long summer stays. May and June are the months where goslings are the most likely to be present, and both parents, and goslings are incapable of flight until all flight feathers have grown back in, in July.  Occasionally, a mated pair will then begin a second nest, and raise a second family in late summer and early Fall.

Nesting

A Canada Goose pair will scout an area out for a few weeks before they will set up a nest.  Once you notice a solitary goose hanging around the property, you most likely already have a nest nearby, with the parents taking turns on the nest. The nest itself is lined with the parent’s “flight feathers,” a natural instinct that both ensures that the eggs are well insulated, and prevents the parents from leaving the eggs, or young goslings by flying away, therefor tying the fate of the parent goose in closely with the young.  The adults and the gosling will gain the ability to fly around the same time that the gosling grow their first batch of “flight feathers,” about 70 days from hatching.  It is also for this reason that geese are almost impossible to get rid of once they have goslings, and why it is imperative that a goose control regimen begin in early spring, when the adult goose is still mobile enough to evacuate your yard.

Geese are actually very intelligent animals, and often a few methods will be needed to encourage a mated pair to leave your area if it seems that they are dead set on living in your yard. One great alternative that has worked effectively is the “goose fence” but another idea that can work well with backyard water features and lawns is a simple rope trick I will talk about below.

How To Use “Line of Sight” Against Geese

Geese, and most waterfowl that I have worked with, do not like rope anywhere near them. They especially feel unsafe when they come across rope near their “safety zone,” which is any body of water they have adopted as their home base, and any turf area they frequent.  Geese have been studied avoiding areas that they once nested around, and even passing those areas over mid-flight, when their “line of sight” is disrupted across a pond, or a grazing area.  Geese rely on their social “warning structure” when on the ground, to become aware of threats to their safety.  Their warning structure comes into play when geese are grazing, and one goose at a time takes a turn at monitoring the area for predators, or danger.  When there is an obstruction to this view, the geese feel that their safety is in question. They also instinctively know that they are vulnerable around their neck, and will avoid obstacles that appear to target their neck area. Running a rope straight across a backyard pond, and anchoring it to two sides of your pond can cause geese to feel that not only if their “line of sight” diminished across a pond, but also that the rope itself, when hung correctly, is a threat to their safety.  A rope used to block “line of sight” for geese can be used across ponds, and also across lawns, with minimal time for set-up, and few materials needed.  The key points to hit in making this rope trick work for you are time selection, and height.

• Time selection: The best time to use this trick is early in the year, when Geese are beginning to return from winter grounds in search of nesting sites.  If you can make your lawn, or backyard pond look less welcoming, and harder to navigate safely for the geese early in the year, you may find that the flock passes you over entirely without even stopping mid-flight to investigate.  If there are a lot of geese around already, your goal is then to make the area seem unwelcome.  Running sections of rope across your lawn, and pond will help in creating what the geese perceive as an impenetrable barrier through sections of what was excellent habitat.
• Height: For this fence to properly target geese, you need to have securely tied rope that is held taut on stakes over either grass, or the water surface.  The ideal height for this over the water would be 6-12 inches from the rope to the surface of the water.  This height properly blocks the swimming ability of the adult goose through the entire pond, and hinders their line of sight in the pond, and when flying over the pond. The rope acts like a visual and physical barrier, and casting shadows over the pond that the geese don’t understand as well.
• Rope Selection: I always recommend using rope is either white, or bright yellow, because these are the easiest colors for the geese to see.  Rope does not have to be the thickest on the market either, a thin nylon rope of construction grade will suffice as long as it is about the width of a human finger, to provide the most visual impact for the goose.

If you are using this method on a lawn, the best way to make your lawn and garden look inhospitable is to create several of these rope areas in either a large “M” or “N” formations where geese are the most nuisance, or, by simply creating a box of your lawn, enclosing it in a small shin-height fence that the geese cannot pass through.  If you are using diagonal lines, make sure to mix up the angles of the lines (M, or N), so that the geese cannot figure out how to graze up and down the “isles” of your roped area. Experiment with any rope that you buy, and see what meets your needs best, and what is allowed by your community (in case there are guidelines that may become problematic as you implement this).  Remember, geese cannot step over things, and cannot duck under things, so anything that would require a goose to do either of these things is in their minds an impassible object.

Don’t lose hope!

If Goose droppings are what bother you, remember a small amount of goose poo isn’t bad for your lawn. The droppings themselves are almost entirely grass, condensed into a form high in nitrogen. It is only when there is a high concentration of droppings that there is a danger of “burning” the lawn.

In my area in particular, Canadian Geese are a large seasonal problem.  With each goose producing a pound of poop a day, they can quickly wear out their welcome, and your lawn! I’ve seen several suggestions online, as to how to control a goose population, including swan decoys, lawn treatments, and planting options, but I want to share with you an idea that is cheaper, and that will produce far more consistent results!  On the job, I manage mowed pond areas, lushly planted habitat areas, areas with high pedestrian traffic, and those with none. I have tried versions of many things to humanely reduce and control the  goose population,  but for the homeowner who wants to discourage water birds in general from landing on your yard, and grazing there, here is a quick and cheap way to keep waterfowl out, without using chemicals, or repellents, and without planting shrubs that will distort your water view.

What to Do: Measure the perimeter around the body of water that borders your property, preferably 2-3 feet from the water line. Divide the perimeter number by five. This is the number of posts you will need to buy. The second calculation you need with the original perimeter number is for the length of rope you will need. To get this number, multiply the perimeter number by 2.

What to Buy:

• Purchase 3-4 foot stakes, or posts (metal, wood, bamboo, or pier pilings, depending on the look you want to achieve).
• Purchase commercial-grade rope, of white, or yellow color.  The thickness of the rope doesn’t matter, thin rope will work just as well.

How To Build Your Goose Fence:

• Place the stakes you purchased at five foot intervals, approximately 2-3 feet from the water line, in a row, hugging the shore line.
• Tap these stakes into the ground ideally leaving 30 inches to 3 and a half feet above the ground (depending on the height of the stake you purchased).  You do not need a tall fence to keep geese, or other water birds away.
• Tie the rope from post to post, leaving a generous swag bowing down in between each post (this is the key to making this fence work).  The rope must not touch the grass line, and should be about one foot off the ground at it’s lowest point.

Tips:

• This idea works best with regularly mowed areas, although it will work in more naturalized areas as well.
• White and yellow rope are easiest for waterfowl to see, as opposed to other colored rope that may blend in the water or grass.

Why This Works:

Geese love large ponds and lakefront property! The reason they happily target these areas is because they may associate close proximity to humans with a free food source, and (especially if the area is mowed), because in these areas it becomes easier for the geese to see predators a long way off, which gives them a feeling of safety.  What this little rope fence does is unsettle geese, who do not understand navigating over and under rope lines.  It plays into their fear as water birds, that they will not be able to reach the water in time, if they are running to avoid a predator.  Water birds absolutely know how slow and akward they are on land, and they know that it is on land that they are the most vulnerable to predation.

This method of goose repelling, will last you until the rope dries out (and needs to be replaced - every couple years), and will pay for itself rapidly in the time and money it saves you cleaning up goose poop, and buying and applying chemicals to deter the birds.

I personally recommend this method for homeowners above every other method.  This method works better than planting grasses, and shrubs as well, and here’s why:  Geese love open spaces to graze in, but lets remember what geese are looking for in a sleeping ground, and a nesting area.  For a goose looking for an area to rear her young, a planted area is best for protecting herself, or her mate while they incubate their young, hiding them from predators, and observation.  A planted area is also ideal for entire goose families to sleep, while feeling sheltered, and hidden.  Waterfowl can be creatures of habit, choosing a designated “home” area to frequent for the weeks before migration practice lessens their visits to your property.

I also recommend this method over Mute Swan decoys, or “tame” live Mute Swans (especially those that are used to close contact with humans).  In a heavily human populated area, there is a high probability that not only geese, but swans, and ducks are being fed by picnic goers, and joggers.  There is no Mute Swan in the world, plastic or otherwise, that will chase families with goslings away from free food for any long period of time.  I have personally seen Canadian Geese chase swans twice their size across entire lakes if the swan got too close to a group of goslings.  Since most goose control issues occur during the months of goose reproduction, this is not a method that I recommend relying on. Live Mute Swans can shorten the duration of Goose occupations, but a plastic swan will not deter geese reliably for any period of time.

NOTE: This rope fence method of goose control is not recommended for areas where tame waterfowl are being kept, or in areas where birds like ducks are welcome.  Water birds of all kinds will swim by this fence, but will not cross the perimeter.  Bird watchers are advised to use this method only when they are happy to accept a certain amount of distance between themselves and the subjects they are viewing.

Want some more tips to keep geese off your property?  Click here for more articles!

Your Thoughts: Having dealt with Goose issues for several years, here is what has worked for me.  If you have a great method of goose control that works around your home, please feel free to share!