Thursday, June 17, 2010

Corralling the geese

Confucius said "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." I agree with him in a lot of ways - I really do love my job and some days it doesn't feel much like work at all! However, some days it does - especially now that I am a full time mom and wildlife biologist - wow juggling work with mommihood really does feel like work sometimes.
Regardless, the last few days I have been able to get back out in the field for the first time since having Fisher. I went on a couple of goose corrals. What is a good corral? Good question.
There are a couple of weeks during the summer when goose molt (lose their feathers and grow new ones). During this time they can't fly. So we go in during these two weeks and remove geese from golf courses, parks, schools, and other places where they are being a nuisance. How are they being a nuisance? Geese poop more than you can imagine!! Each goose can poop up to 3 lbs a day!! So if you have 100 geese on your little park, that is 300 lbs of poop a day that they are leaving behind for people to step in, kids to eat, and all of that fun stuff. Anyway, during the time they can't fly we are able to very gently guide them into a corral type cage because they can't fly away from us. Then we can relocate them to a wetland area far away where they can do their goose duty of pooping 3 lbs a day without causing damage. It is pretty cool to see it done - because it is so quiet and actually kind of peaceful. There are four of five people quietly herding the geese into the pen. We try to be calm to keep the geese calm because if they get upset then they will split up. So anyway - I have been out on a couple of these the last two days. It has been so great to get back outside and work with animals again!
I guess the only difference is - I had to pump on the way to each corral. ha ha ha. We have to meet up at 6 am and I am not getting up any earlier than I already have to. I have gotten pretty good at pumping and driving. I am sure lots of working, traveling moms have mastered that technique as well!!

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