WILDLIFE — An infestation of Canada geese has been converting  portions of Bend, Ore., parks into latrines for years. Frustrated parks staff and health officials raised the ire of animal rights activists when they killed about a hundred geese a few years ago — probably some of the same folks who at turkey at Thanksgiving.

So the battle continues.  Read on how everything from vegetable oil to kayaks is being used to control the problem.

WATERFOWL — I'm thankful for today and looking forward to tomorrow, just as these goslings appeared to be saying at last light on Thursday, photographed by Montana outdoor photographer Jaime Johnson.

WATERFOWLING — North Dakota is opening what looks to be a bountiful hunting season on Canada Geese in mid-August to deal with the flyway's overly successful goose boom.

For the first time, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department is recommending a daily bag limit of 15 and a possession limit of 30 for the early season that begins Aug. 15 and continues through mid-September.

That’s up from limits of eight and 16 during last year’s early season.

The reason for the liberal bag is simple, wildlife managers say:

There’s too many Canada geese out there - way too many, in some cases.

“Canada geese are definitely emerging as one of the Central Flyway’s top priorities up and down the flyway,” said Mike Szymanski, a migratory game bird biologist for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in Bismarck. “It’s not just the Dakotas having issues; they’re superabundant, and prairie Canada has a ton of Canada geese, too.”

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency charged with regulating migratory bird seasons, North Dakota’s estimated Canada goose population this spring stood at a whopping 415,000 birds. That’s more than twice the 162,000 Canada geese tallied in the spring of 2000 and five times higher than the state Game and Fish Department’s management goal of 80,000 birds.

WATERFOWLING — Goose hunters have a lot of decisions to make, often in a split second in the dim light of early morning, with wind blowing and rain pelting their faces.

Bird identification is tough in good conditions.  Add these factors and …. well, it's really tough.

Daily limits of dusky and cackling geese are reduced to help protect their struggling populations, yet they often fly in groups with plentiful Canada geese.

Read on for some pre-season reading for conservation-minded waterfowlers.

WILDLIFE RESEARCH — Volunteers helped Washington Fish and Wildlife Department researchers round up and band 894 Canada geese in Eastern Washington during the past two weeks.  More than 80 of the geese were captured in the Spokane and Liberty Lake area, includind 30 at Gonzaga University.

The roundup was timed for the molt, when the adults couldn't fly, making it easy to herd them and their broods into enclosures.

Read on for the tally of birds captured at 14 sites during this ongoing study headed by waterfowl expert Mikal Moore. 

WATERFOWL — Happy Mother's Day from the nearest pond or water hazard!

After 25-30 days of tending their nests, Canada geese have been hatching broods all over the Spokane area this past week.

The little yellow goslings stand out especially vividly on the green grass of golf courses, such as Qualchan, where they are tolerated by course managers.

Reasearch has shown that many of these goslings will fledge and migrate north this fall, where a high percentage will fall to goose hunters in Canada, never to fowl, or foul, a Spokane golf course again.