By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
Raise your hand if you’ve fed the geese and ducks at City Park.
And that’s the problem.
Braxton Whitaker, a 17-year-old Salisbury High School junior, lives across the street from City Park and has watched closely the interaction of Canada geese and ducks with humans much of his life.
That relationship often is not good for the birds, Whitaker says, and, increasingly, people also are becoming the targets of aggressive fowl.
The bread, popcorn and chips usually fed to geese and ducks have no nutritional value and lead to unnatural growth and dependency.
In fact, the birds can develop a condition called angel wing, which will ground them for life, Whitaker says. Without the ability to fly, the birds lose their ability to escape predators.
The feeding by humans also disrupts the birds’ natural migration patterns by causing them to stay in Salisbury too long.
The army of birds sometime have become a traffic hazard ó and a danger to themselves ó when they walk onto the street next to City Park.
Then there are the problems with defecation. Goose poop.
Marketing and Community Relations Manager Elaney Hasselmann says the Parks and Recreation Department spends about $18,000 a year cleaning up after the geese.
Besides what people feed them, an adult goose eats four pounds of grass and excretes two pounds of waste each day.
The geese ó Whitaker estimates 75 to 100 birds at City Park ó eat so much grass that it has become impossible to grow any around City Lake. The park staff has given up until it finds a better way to deal with the birds.
In many instances, the geese have become aggressive, always expecting food when park visitors are near them. A female Canada goose also is nesting, which makes her male friend protective. When anyone walks close to the nest, the male becomes agitated and menacing.
Whitaker and Hasselmann reviewed some of the City Park bird problems with Salisbury City Council Tuesday.
As part of his graduation project for high school, Whitaker wants to join forces with Salisbury Parks and Recreation to create a goose and duck education program on how to feed (or not feed) the birds, how to interact and give just general information about them.
With the city’s help, he’ll be creating a video at City Park to be shown on Time Warner Cable’s Access 16 station. He also will be working with the city’s summer camp program and helping staff develop signs with pertinent information.
“Braxton has a huge wealth of knowledge,” Hasselmann said.
Councilman Bill Burgin said “Do You Know …” signs at the park would especially be helpful in informing citizens how to interact with the geese and ducks.
Mayor Susan Kluttz said she routinely went to City Park as a child to feed the birds and agreed with others that an educational program is needed.
Whitaker said other cities allow little or no feeding and sometimes try to devise less goose-friendly habitats in their city parks because of the problems.
Not feeding the geese probably is the best approach, Whitaker says, because they’ll return to their normal migratory practices yet still visit the park on occasion.
For people who still want to feed the geese, there are specific nutritional foods available at places such as Tractor Supply, Whitaker says.
Even then, that food should be scattered in places where geese might naturally forage for food, rather than people giving it to them directly, he says.