The Hudson River slices a border between New York and New Jersey. On the Manhattan side is the concrete grid with her wind lashed avenues and imposing skyscrapers. On the opposite bank, is northern New Jersey and a sprawl of industrial estates. There are some pockets of green, though where nature fights back. Many of these green spaces flank the Hudson. In one such pocket, I have enjoyed watching a rather unappreciated bird that continues to thrive in urban spaces – the Canada goose.
In New York and New Jersey Canada geese seem to appear wherever there is water. I watched numbers rise and fall over the winter as some groups stopped over on their migration from the north, but a resident population remains year round. The excesses of a city’s human dwellers provides an abundance of food for those that can tolerate it, even in the harshest months of the year. When times are really tough, there are always city children wanting to be touched by an all too rare connection with nature by feeding a hungry goose.
In their second year, male and female Canada geese form bonds for life and are both active parents. My local geese selected nest sites on the ground, on or around the dilapidated piers of Hoboken, New Jersey, where they hatched their young surrounded by people, litter, ferries and feral cats.
In this seemingly hostile environment, I watched families come together to form gangs of goslings which grew rapidly on a diet of grass and the seeds and bread that people fed them with. The yellow bundles of fluff delighted the young children in the parks and gardens.
The adult geese are large, growing to over 102 cm (40 inches) with a wingspan of up to 1.7 meters (5.6 ft.) and weighing in at up to a colossal 9 kg (19.8 lbs.); the bird can live for over 20 years.
There are still populations of Canada geese that maintain their traditional migrations from the far north of the American continent down to the southern states and Central America. These birds are capable of covering 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) in 24 hours flying in that well known ‘V’ formation that we see high over our towns and countryside. They have been reported to fly at extraordinary altitudes of up to 9 km (29,000 ft.)
Many people view these beautiful birds as pest due to their presence on, and fouling of parks, pavements and golf courses where a gaggle of 50 geese can produce up to 2.5 tons of excrement a year. Perhaps you are reading this and muttering a curse under your breath at the mess that these thoughtless birds left on your lawn or at the golf course at the weekend. If so, keep in mind that following as little as 1/4 inch (6.5 mm) of rain, New York City pumps sewage overflow into the Hudson River to the tune of 27 billion gallons of combined sewage and storm water every year. It could be argued that the goose is getting the raw deal.
In flight, they present a collision hazard around airports. This was most graphically illustrated in New York in 2009 when a passenger jet collided with a flock of Canada geese shortly after take-off. The collision caused both engines to fail and a heroic pilot to crash-land US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River, avoiding serious injuries to the 155 people on board. This led to controversial culls taking place around New York airports. Once again the long suffering geese did not come out of the event as fortunate as the passengers of Flight 1549!
Their great abundance has made them popular with hunters, with over 2.5 million being taken every year. Still the birds endure, and I can’t help but admire them for their ability to survive, thrive and grow in the harshest of human environments.
Long live the Canada goose! I hope to see this survivor in our parks and urban water courses for many years to come.
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Categories: USA
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Great post! Canada geese are hard to miss here in Toronto. Sometimes they stop traffic as they try to cross the road. My son goes to University of Waterloo and the campus is filled with them. They actually have signs tracking the number of days without geese attacks. And in the spring, when the birds are nesting, the University has an online map that helps you create the safest route to get to your destination.
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Thanks for the feedback and for the interesting information to add to the post! The geese certainly know how to defend themselves! 🙂
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The beautiful canadian geese should NEVER be fed human food – including NO bread, crackers, etc. If you must feed them, do so with special food for C. Geese from a pet store. Better for them is you just admire them from afar and keep their areas clean of human and other garbage. Human food can/will greatly damage a goose whether a baby or an adult and will result in neurological and physical problems where they cannot fly and will need to be euthanized. Speak to a wild bird specialist and they will let you know. Thanks for this article and the beautiful photos – I too love and admire them – but do not feed them, there is plenty of grassland and natural food for them.
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Thanks for the comment, Abigail. I agree 100% that we should not be feeding them, and especially not human food. I think the reality of life on an urban river is a little different. I’m sure it is why many of the geese do not migrate from NY and NJ, even in the harshest of winters. Inner city kids are always going to want to feed geese and ducks. For many it is there only contact with nature. It would be great to see more signs educating people around what can and can’t be fed and the health impacts.
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What fantastic pictures and a lovely story!
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Thanks for the great feedback! 🙂
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Love Canadas! Though they can be maligned anywhere…in Kansas in the 1980s the Fish n Wildlife Dept wanted to establish a breeding program-as there were so few Canada geese here…was way too successful and they are now considered a nuisance species. Usually have 1 nesting site on the pond…admire them and their family units!
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Once they get established there seems to be no stopping them! 🙂 Their family unit walking down the sidewalk is a welcome addition to any city or town.
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Great Post!
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Gorgeous photos David – especially the beautiful little baby! 🙂 It always lifts my spirits to see that Nature outwitting the humans! Thanks for an uplifting little story 🙂 Leah
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Thanks Leah! Yeah, me too! I even get a smile from a mouse or a rat if it has carved out a life where it isn’t supposed to be 🙂 thanks for the kind comment
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The best wordpress´s blog about animals! (after mine) xD
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Excellent comment! 🙂 Yes, I like your blog. Looking forward to following.
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Hi David,
I missed this post in my WP reader so thanks for liking my blog post on Twitter – it reminded me to check your blog! An excellent post full of interesting information and gorgeous photos. I really didn’t know much about Canadian geese. We mostly see domestic geese here and we have a species called magpie geese which are not really geese. I agree with you about the excrement aspect. We pollute the environment of critters much more! Thanks for another wonderful piece! 🙂
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Hi Jane, thanks again for the comment! I didn’t think anyone would be interested in the common old Canada goose but I’m pleased to find out that many people don’t take urban wildlife for granted. I guess your urban wildlife includes parrots which would fascinate us in the northern hemisphere. I didn’t get to see the Magpie goose in Australia but I was fortunate enough to see (and may write a post on them) the rare Cape Barren Goose in South Australia. I was stunned to find out how much sewage we pump into our city rivers. We need to transform our approach.
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Hi,
Fascinating post with beautiful photography. I come from Wales, where I have watched Canada Geese take off from the moat surrounding Caerphilly Castle for years as a child. I live in Northern England now and they always bring back a taste of home for me. Thanks for rekindling the memory!
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Thanks for the great feedback! I’m delighted if I managed to put you back in your childhood in Wales. That is a wonderful complement. I remember feeding these geese as a kid in England. They were always more gentle than the ornamental geese that seemed happy enough to take a finger with the crust I offered.
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You have beautifully captured a little bit of the diversity of urban wildlife which is ignored unless it affects our way of life. It is ironic that when an incident occurs between humans and wildlife, it is always the wildlife which ends up with the short end of the stick.
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That is so true! Thanks for the kind comment.
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