Swan song for Canada geese?

On my first trip to a North Carolina beach I marveled at the aeronautic grace of seagulls. Being an Arizona desert rat, most of the gulls I'd seen were on the logos of San Diego sports teams.

The Carolina native I was with sensed my fascination and ended it with "Yuck. Seagulls are nothing more than rats with feathers. I hate 'em."

I've never gotten a handle on what makes some birds a treasure and others trash. In Raleigh, apparently the deal breaker is poop. Earlier this week, the News & Observer's David Bracken reported that geese are a problem in the Triangle because they answer nature's call up to 30 times a day. The public health concerns of a massive pileup are valid, but why now? Weren't geese going at the same rate in 1970s?

Well, like their human counterparts the geese are flocking here at record rates. Just like me, once a goose gets a taste of North Carolina and its hospitality, it doesn't want to leave. Not even when it's time to go home.

N.C. State University professor Chris DePerno has won a federal grant to determine how many Canada geese migrate to North Carolina -- probably without documentation -- and stay longer than nature says they should. I'm betting it's because the weather's good and the food is even better, especially when humans are dishing it out generously.

So instead of flying north in search of their next meal in the Canadian tundra, many geese have decided to stay put and scoop up the delicacies that Triangle residents are laying at their feet. Who can blame them?

But an increase in geese means an increase in the droppings they leave behind. To solve this problem, Raleigh is exploring techniques to hold down the bird population, particularly at parks and lakes. Among the techniques being looked at are using dogs to disperse the birds, as some golf courses do, and reducing the food supply by asking humans to quit feeding them. In extreme cases, Raleigh would ask for permission to ice the birds.

Yep, that means killing them, and it isn't a rare occurrence in North Carolina. Bracken reported that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued 150 permits last year to cull the state's growing geese population. That was up from 50 the year before. The permits are necessary because Canada geese are federally protected birds.

Hmmm...using dogs, reducing the food supply and possibly employing euthanasia to control a bird population. Where have I heard this before?

Ah yes, these are the same techniques the U.S. Navy wants to use at a proposed outlying landing field in Washington County. The Navy wants to protect pilots from freeloading tundra swans that winter at nearby Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.

Turns out that Canada geese and tundra swan are birds of a feather. They both like handouts. One study in the OLF project's draft environmental impact statement concluded that the area's tundra swan population has grown mainly because increased croplands provide an easy meal.

So the Navy would grow grass and put dogs on that same land As a last resort, federal permission would be requested to employ lethal methods, such as, say, shooting the birds.

For this, some OLF opponents have characterized the Navy's plan as barbaric.

Among the Washington County OLF site opponents is Gov. Mike Easley. One of his reasons for opposing the site is that he wants to preserve the area for the state's hunters, who periodically are allowed to shoot birds there.

I asked a Tar Heel native why there's no outrage toward controlling geese in the Triangle, but anger about doing the same thing in Washington County. Lots of people live in the Triangle, he noted, but only a few live in the sticks.

That's exactly the Navy's point.