Goose tagging, tracking is 'fun'

MASSENA — Feathers and goose poop flew everywhere as more than 100 volunteers carried Canada geese from a holding pen to be tagged and tracked Wednesday.

People ranging in age from 4 to 89 came out to Wilson Hill to help the state Department of Environmental Conservation update records for approximately 250 adults and band more than 400 goslings before a thunderstorm rolled through in the afternoon.

"We have years where we get 1,000 or 1,200. It's probably an average year," said Irene M. Mazzocchi, a wildlife biologist with DEC who helped organize the roundup. "There was a lot of young birds. That's good; it means they're nesting in the area."

Across the state and the nation, biologists and volunteers are catching Canada geese at this time of year because they are molting now and cannot fly away. The biologists use the opportunity to check the metal bands around their legs and band young birds. The numbers on the bands keep track of where the birds go and how many are killed by hunters.

Despite a long hunting season with liberal bag allowances, there are still entirely too many geese in the area. The population here is about twice what it should be, according to William N. Sharick, a DEC biologist from Delaware County.

"To some folks, they're just great wildlife symbols. To anybody with a lawn, they're a nuisance. They poop all over the place," he said. "You just can't get rid of them."

The information collected at the roundup will be tabulated at both the state and federal levels. Once the updated information is entered, it will be sent to Washington, D.C. Projects to monitor Canada geese have been going on for decades. The one at Wilson Hill has been going on for 45 years, making it the longest-running of its kind in the state, according to Mr. Sharick.

In addition to data about geese, the event brought people together. Families, college students and kayakers came out in droves to pitch in with the occasionally dirty work and share a lunch of hot dogs and hamburgers provided by the Massena Rod and Gun Club.

"It's an opportunity for folks to see what we do in a positive way and also spend some time in nature that's not too intense, " said Judy Drabecki, DEC Region 6 director.

Even the ornery and stressed-out geese themselves couldn't put a damper on people's spirits. They lined up again and again to carry geese, gripping them at the base of their wings, from the pen to the data-collection tables and back to the marsh.

"I got pooped on by the first one," said Heather M. Hokanson, a rising sophomore from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. "Better to get pooped on than scratched. Poop will wash out, scratches stay. It's fun."