The Geese at Satellite Place

by Bruce Beverly

Satellite Place is a commercial/residential area in Duluth, Georgia, a few miles northeast of Atlanta. The office parks, shopping malls, and residential areas here feature retaining ponds and a few small lakes. The "lake" where I live is about the size of a football field— really just a large retaining pond designed as a landscape feature. In the daytime we typically have between 25 and 65 Canada geese and several ducks at the lake. Other aquatic life includes frogs, turtles, tadpoles, brown water snakes, and occasionally a blue heron or anhinga.

Quick Links:

Goose hugs - See how some geese interact with people

Sidekick - Goose with deformed wing... our sweetheart goose of the lake

Hop-along - Gander with only one foot but a big heart

Skip-along - Goose with a lame leg that is getting better

Snow White - A special visitor from the arctic

Nomad family - Family with five goslings visits the lake

Uno - A little gosling grows up

The Early Birds - A close-knit family of six

Buzzby - A small goose with lots of character

Big Bird - A puppet-like goose

Eyebrows - Goose with a unique face

Elmer - Goose with "sticky" feet

Brava and Quack-along - Ducks are special birds, too

The flock of geese gathers close by when corn and bread are on the way. A few ducks join them, too. Click here for larger image.

Geese Food - What to buy / where to get it

Related Links - More goose info!

Three geese a-sleeping... After arriving in the morning, these geese formed a "sleeper train" to rest from the flight to the lake. Click here for larger image.

The Flock: To Know Them is to Love Them...

The geese arrive in the morning and leave in the evening before sundown to return to their roosting lake(s). Many of the same geese return day after day. But on the whole, one can never be sure when it is the last time you will ever see any particular goose. And that tests the quality of the love, because they daily choose where they want to fly. While molting season brings a period of geographical stability (the geese cannot fly), it also brings separation if a goose molts at another lake.

My approach to the flock of geese is to let them tell their own story; I'm just here to learn. Feeding the geese is simply a means to that end. It brings them close enough for interaction and rewards them for it. While I have had pets such as dogs or cats in the past, I think one of the more interesting things to observe with geese is the social behavior of a large flock of animals. This includes territorial behavior, interaction during feeding, alerting for predators, common preening or bathing times, etc.

I feed the geese two main feedings twice a day (morning and evening). They know when it's feeding time and often wait nearby in the grass for me to come outside. I feed them mainly whole-kernel corn, but sometimes bring some cracked corn or some bread, too. With so many hungry geese competing for food, whole kernel corn is neater (less waste) and quicker to eat than the same amount of cracked corn. I pour the corn along the ground in a long row at one time. This way, most or all the geese have a chance to feed. It quite amazing to see how quickly 35 geese can devour a half-gallon of corn; it's sometimes gone in less than 30 seconds. The flock consumes about 50 pounds of corn per week. A 50 lb. bag of corn (whole or cracked) costs just six dollars.

Bottom's up! With the Bermuda grass withering in the fall, geese eagerly gather 'round a tub of cracked corn. Click here for larger image.

This goose like the cracked corn so much that it decided to check my pockets for more (even though I never carry food there). Click here for larger image.

Feeding Tips

To learn the traits and personalities of individual geese, it's important to be able to feed them individually. So, I save back some corn to hand-feed individuals. Here's some things I do to get to know each goose via feeding:

Feed individual geese after, not before, the other geese have been fed (unless the goose is alone). Otherwise, the dominant geese in the flock will harass the goose you are trying to feed (or even hurt it if it is a gosling).
Pick a spot away from the walkways where people walking their dogs could distract or scare away your audience.
Kneel or sit down so that you are eye-level with the geese. Yes, it can make your knees hurt, but no pain—no gain. Your knees will get used to it.
If a goose will not yet eat from your hand, wait until they come as close as they dare and then reward them for getting at least that far... Gently toss them a little corn.
With the corn in the palm of your hand, use an under-hand toss with a flip of the wrist. This minimizes the motion and gets the kernels to land mostly together. An overhand throw looks like an aggressive gesture to most geese and spreads the kernels too broadly.
Hold your hand very low to the ground or on the ground, if necessary, to coax the goose closer. (If your hand is held too high, the goose can only see your knuckles and it thinks that you might whack it on the head.)
Always wash your hands thoroughly after feeding the geese. Do not touch your face or any open wounds in the meantime.

The Feed Tub

Geese that have a physical handicap will have difficulty getting their fair share of corn at feeding time. After most of the geese in the flock know you and which food you usually bring, group feeding times can be very competitive. Enter the food tub to level the playing field for the under-goose. I use the 3-cup (24.oz.) GLAD® brand semi-transparent plastic container. It also comes free with some deli meats such as chipped ham. The food tub has several benefits:

The tub is portable, allowing you to bring the food to the goose when another one chases it away from its food.
The tub is almost clear, allowing geese to see the corn through the side. This aids in teaching the goose to eat from the food tub.
The rounded corners inside the tub makes it easy to reach all the food.
You can add an inch or two of water to the corn; geese just love to eat corn in water.
Cracked corn is much neater to serve in a food tub when compared to pouring it out on the ground.
Uneaten food is easy to collect and save for later.
The lightweight tub is less likely to injure a goose that trips over it (as when goosed while eating) when compared to a heavier bowl.

When a particular goose already eats from your hand, it is usually a small leap to get them to eat from the feed tub. Otherwise, upon seeing the feed tub for the first time, some geese will try to get at the corn inside by rooting under the tub. After that fails, some will try accessing the top as a last resort (success). Others are too afraid of the tub to explore it, so you have to coax the geese by dropping food into the tub. But, others must learn by example. One day a goose was perturbed that a duck was eating corn from a feed tub. So, he chased the duck away, only to be confounded by the tub... how to get at the corn? The duck returned to eat again, practically shaming the goose into finally mustering the courage to put his beak into the top of the tub.

The feed tub makes a handy, portable feeding station for lame geese such as Skip-along. Click here for larger image.

The flock at feeding time. Three lucky geese have their own feed tub with water and corn. Click here for larger image.

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