Canada Geese… I Love to look at them flying majestically overhead in their flying wedge. I don’t, however, like the poop they leave alllllllll over the parks when they touch down. Some of the goose poop is much bigger than some dog poop. We have to pick up after the dogs, but what about the geese? I’m serious. There are some soccer fields in this town that the kids can’t stand playing on because the Canada Geese have littered the field with their guano or whatever the official name for goose poop is. A summertime picnic on the grass? Don’t even THINK about it. It’s getting ridiculous. The city of Portland Parks and Rec folks need to start killing off the birds. When I spoke to a Park and Rec spokesman on the show recently (the subject was the HUGE rental increases for baseball, soccer and other fields), he agreed that the geese are a problem in some parks.Aren’t Canada Geese in the same ballpark as Starlings? Starlings are a nuisance bird. Even the Audubon Society consider them rats with wings. What about Canada Geese? Back in the day I worked for a production company as an intern on a TV show about animals. The San Diego Zoo was a typical subject of the show. When we were given an inside tour we found out that the San Diego Zoo took great pains to get rid of their biggest nemesis–pigeons. They had what is tantamount to a ‘roach hotel’ for the pigeons. They hid them all over the park. It was a Hotel California for pigeons because you could check in but you could never leave. Why would they do that? I’ll tell you why. The pigeons would pick up any number of bacteria and ookies and then deposit them on or around the animals in the Zoo who could ingest it. Before too long you’d have sick or dead animals.

I took my wild animal, my Maxie, to Willamette Park today and snapped a few shots of the dirty, icky, beautiful Canada Geese. Don’t bother walking on the grass. There is barely a spot untouched by the filthy by goose poop.
As you can see nearby there’s a man who’s made the best out of the awful goose poop situation. He makes art out of it.