April 2024 A honking tale
A FEW years back I wasn’t so sure if I liked Canada geese. I even wrote a rather disparaging article about them for a magazine; however, since then I’ve grown quite fond of them, so apologies to the geese for my slanderous words. Granted though, they’re noisy when it comes to cranking up the decibels on the marina.
Along the canals and waterways, human-habituated Canada geese certainly aren’t shy. They’ll quite happily swim across to any boat dweller silly enough to feed them (like us). And then they’ll hang around the boat, or stand on the pontoon, leering into your boat while having a loud honk about it. Most boat dwellers I’ve chatted to have a love-hate relationship with Canada geese, and it’s due to the geese’s habit of perching, or roosting, on boat cabins, and causing a mess.
When the bigger flocks used to roost in Caen Hill Marina, and before they’d paired off, they’d arrive with a lot of noise but tended to settle down once it got dark. In the pre-dawn darkness, the honking would kick off again. It’d build to a crescendo as they encouraged each other to depart. And then, in a welter of water, noise and flapping wings, they’d lift off. Where they were headed to I haven’t a clue, although it was probably to feed in wheat stubble or similar. Over the last three seasons, we haven’t had the big flocks settle in the marina overnight. I’m not really sure why, as the big flocks aren’t intimidated by our resident swan who detests them.
Deciding to delve deeper into Canada geese being in the UK, I did some online research and found they’ve been here for centuries. The fault lies with the monarchy. Apparently, King Charles II imported numbers of them from the new colonies in North America in about 1665. He wanted them as ornaments in his London garden, normally referred to as St James’s Park.
Canada geese are larger than the UK’s native graylag geese and certainly more exotic looking. Known as colonial geese in King Charles II’s days, it wasn’t long before they were found in the gardens of many of the UK’s most stately homes.
Over time though, escaping became the order of the day and the escapees soon procreated to the point of establishing a resident feral Canada goose population. A small number of Canada geese apparently still migrate here each winter. However, the UK’s main populations are the descendants of those Canada geese which once graced the British aristocracy’s gardens.
The big flocks used to start arriving to roost in the marina during late August. By then too, much of the wheat and barley on surrounding farms has already been combined. The inviting stubble left on the fields attracts the geese. By late March the females start incubating, normally 5-7 eggs. During the incubation period the somewhat protective gander stands by and after about 30 days the eggs hatch. The goslings are tended by both parents and it takes about 48 days before they can fly. They then remain with their parents until the following breeding season. During extremely cold winter weather, some birds will cross the English Channel to France, and there are reputedly 62,000 breeding pairs of Canada geese in the UK and more than 1000 in Ireland.