Nick Fernandes is used to the late day rhythm of crew teams rowing the North Branch of the Chicago River. May 14 was different while he walked his blind dog Sabo southeast of the Western Avenue bridge.
“I heard this most horrific noise, as if a coyote got a cat,” he said Tuesday as he showed me the area. “I turn and see six goslings, three or four were hit by the boat. A couple were flopping.”
An adult goose tried to help some goslings by lifting them with its bill.
“There were screams,” another neighbor Beth MacKay said. “I figured a kid fell into the water. The screams were just crazy.”
A women’s crew, while practicing, had run through the geese.
Fernandes tied up Sabo, then went to talk to the rowers, maybe more yell, that they had killed some goslings.
A woman in the trailing launch (the accompanying motor boat generally with coaches) then scooped the dead goslings (at least four) one by one with a paddle with a younger woman assisting.
When the male crew rowed through, the male coach asked what they were doing. When he found out goslings had been killed, both MacKay and Fernandes reported that he said, “Good, I ——- hate those geese.”
“I couldn’t believe the coach said that,” Fernandes said.
Canada geese have become a pain in the ass, a remarkable recovery for giant Canada geese, a subspecies thought extinct 63 years ago. Now they waddle languorously across landscapes like lords of the realm, resulting in human/goose conflicts.
Canada geese are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In Illinois, “It is illegal to kill or remove geese or to destroy, move, or disturb their active nests, eggs, or young without a PERMIT from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources,” according to the IDNR.
This, however, appears to have been an accident. A well-synced crew can top 10 mph with their shells (crew boats).
Humans and giant Canada geese now commonly have conflicts.
In 2012, David A. Graber and John M. Coluccy, Ph.D., wrote in “Understanding Waterfowl: Story of the Giants” for Ducks Unlimited, “Waterfowl biologists believe there may be more Canada geese in North America today than at any time in history. Much of this abundance can be attributed to soaring populations of giant Canada geese.”
It’s been a wild ride for giant Canada geese, largest of Canada geese subspecies and the one that nests around Illinois.
Long ago, their nesting extended from southern Canada to Tennessee. But Graber and Coluccy noted, that “by the early 20th century, however, giant Canada geese had been extirpated throughout most of their range as a result of unregulated hunting, egg collecting, and habitat destruction.”
They were thought to be extinct until 1962 in Minnesota when, as Stephen Havera notes in his tome, “Waterfowl of Illinois,” (pages 7-8), Harold Hanson “discovered the giant race of Canada geese . . . He later concluded that numerous flocks of Giant Canada geese existed in the prairie provinces in Canada and in some areas of the United States.”
In nearly 50 years with the Illinois Natural History Survey, Hanson wrote “The Giant Canada Goose.” After retiring, he published “The White-cheeked Geese.”
Credit humans.
“Giant Canada geese have also benefited from manmade changes to their environment,” Graber and Coluccy wrote. “Canada geese are grazers by trade and prefer the succulent new growth of grasses and sedges, which explains why these birds are so fond of manicured lawns, parks, and golf courses. But Canada geese also grub for roots and tubers and feed on various seeds and waste cereal grains. Their adaptable feeding habits and tolerance for people have enabled giant Canada geese to exploit urban and agricultural landscapes alike. In short, people have created ideal living conditions for these birds.”
Welcome to Chicago and the collar counties, Mecca of giant Canada geese. A mecca with sometimes hellish human/geese clashes.
The Chicago River system is a perfect example.
Thirty years ago, builders didn’t put condos facing the river. Now it’s prime real estate as the river cleaned up and become a haven for wildlife.
Fernandes moved by the river in 2022 because of the river, saying, “That’s the reason, 100 percent. I have a kayak. We have a dock.”
While he showed me where the gosling incident occurred, I saw a cormorant, Canada geese, drake mallards and gulls. MacKay has seen beaver, muskrats and turtles everywhere.
“I have been looking for an otter [not seeing one so far],” MacKay said. “There’s coyote in the area.”
She has lived most of her life in the city before moving by the river and had no idea what the river offered.
“I had never kayaked in my life,” she said. “You have no idea you are even in Chicago. That is why I want to protect this, such a nice thing.”