Welcome Wing Point Members

This blog is intended to keep the members at Wing Point up to date on the course conditions, the challenges we face with weather, the day to day update on projects, and hopefully add some insight to your overall golf experience. The blog will be updated as much as possible. Information on things that may impact your golf experience such as sanding or aeration will be posted as well. Take time to read one of the polls on the side of the page. The results will help us make decisions on course maintenance practices and give us feedback on what you, the members are thinking.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Where's all the geese?

Most people have already noticed the geese are pretty much gone! For those of you that might be down south already, or just haven't been out due to all the rain, we may have solved one of our biggest problems. We bought 12 Mute Swan Decoys and put 4 in each pond. That was over two weeks ago, and we haven't seen geese on holes 10 through 18 since. Swans are very competitive for territory and geese stay away from areas with swans. Pretty simple it turns out. We also purchased a Coyote Decoy and Dead Goose Decoy. These are used in combination to make it look like there is a fresh kill from a predator. We move them daily between #1 and #4. I am bringing my dog Osos to work about 3 days a week as well. The geese really hate Osos and we think they are getting the coyote decoy confused with him on fly overs. The end result to these techniques has been a reduction in the goose population from around 75 to maybe 10. Those 10 geese are rarely seen.

Some funny things have been witnessed with all the decoys. Vince Lanza watched from his deck on the 17th hole as the two Bald Eagles stood over the dead goose decoy and attacked it. He said they also dove down on the swans a few times. The coyote scared the heck out of Al Clasens and Gary Hurt. On a foggy morning the day after the coyote was first put out, Al approached it with his golf club high above his head until he realized it was a fake. Maybe it's time to visit Brad Maier for a check up guys? On a more serious note, the geese being gone has improved work efficiency. The greens crew routinely had to blow goose poop off the 18th, 10th, 11th, and 17th greens before mowing.

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