The Ebb and Flow of Hunting Creek

            The leaves are changing color along the shorelines of Hunting Creek, a tidal branch of the Miles River  on which members of my family have lived for nearly a hundred years. Autumn has once again arrived and now is the season for a mug of apple cider, a horseshoe of fresh, local oysters, or the smoky warmth of a bonfire outdoors in the crisp night air. It’s also time, for my family and friends to listen carefully for the honks and murmurs, clucks and groans arising from  Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) now gathering in abundance along the creek and in the many nearby marshes and coves. These voices echoing over the water always bring me home, a feeling difficult to describe to others but one that firmly roots me into this place. These annual visitors travel south down the Atlantic flyway from their Canadian nesting grounds in search of refuge for the winter months. “The bulk of the Chesapeake’s wintering population still breeds on the tundra of Ungava Peninsula in Quebec. In late September and October these are the birds that come down in the high V’s, looking for familiar haunts.” (8,144) This region is prime territory for observation of migratory birds as the “Chesapeake Bay winters about 5 percent of the continental waterfowl population and about 25 percent of those that follow the Atlantic Flyway.” (7,114) From the vantage points of my parent’s dock and seawall I am fortunate to be able to observe an ecosystem in seasonal transition as it confronts an influx of these new arrivals. Allowing myself the opportunity to become in tune with the environment around me is important because as Dave Wilson once said “The path that leads to knowing your wild neighbors is natural history.” (5, 101)

The creek affords many spectacular views of a brackish river system in all its natural splendor. As a place where land and water intersect, where two different biomes rub up against one another, this area has all the qualities of an ecotone. Ecotones are very important ecologically as they are most often biologically rich, providing habitat for a wide variety of flora and fauna. The significant depth of biodiversity here fuels an ever-changing cast of characters and events as the scenes of the ongoing play that is the natural world are acted out in their proper setting. Against the backdrop of the tidal waters flowing by me a natural history of this muddy, backwater creek, the only place that I will ever truly call home, emerges. This is where my parents have lived the entire 28 years that I have been on this planet. A great deal of my formative time was spent splashing through the waters of Hunting Creek. That I developed such a strong affinity for these murky waters is therefore no great surprise. From the vantage point of small watercraft such as canoes or aluminum duck boats I was able to observe the changing of the tides and come to know the sandbars and rock piles within the creek like the back of my hand. Sunlight glistening off of water droplets on a kayak paddle led me to sandy beaches in search of sea glass and arrowheads. Through hunting and fishing in the local area I gained a wealth of knowledge about species identification and behaviors. Time spent outdoors guiding, hunting, and tracking helped me to become more confident in my abilities to thrive amidst the living entities and ecological processes forming the very nature of this place.

But much more than just venturing out in kayaks and learning proper firearms handling were involved in this maturation process. Under the tutelage of my parents and other mentors I have been able to build a solid foundation of environmental appreciation. These teachers of the living world have stressed that there was so much more involved in engaging with the natural world than merely harvesting what one needs from it. Relaxing and simply becoming an attentive audience to the natural processes that take place in this creek is one of my most cherished pastimes. It is an incredibly calming experience for me to swing idly in the hammock that my father mounted between two Cedar trees along the seawall many years ago. From this lofty vantage point I am able to bear witness to the rhythms of Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) as they soar through the air constantly calling back and forth to one another. Their hunting prowess is remarkable as they quest without end for their next meal. These predatory birds dive at incredible speeds as they plunge into the water in their attempts to snare fish such as White Perch (Morone Americana), Spot “Croaker” (Leiostomus xanthurus), or Menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus). And when an ungainly Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) lofts itself upwards from a perch such as a partially submerged tree stump, I am called not only to observe but also bear witness to its flight. The squawks and screeches of these creatures, who look like a modern version of the long-extinct pterodactyl, haunted me as a child. But now their strangeness has become familiar and fetches me home.

In my adolescent years my family raised Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) from small little ducklings until a point where they were large enough to survive on their own. Now I am overcome by nostalgia whenever I watch the pitch of these ducks gliding effortlessly into a cove only to land down in the water with a silty splash. The way that they cup their wings as their distinctive bright orange feet flash by will always be a part of me. Years ago my father and I would abstain from shooting at mallards when we were duck hunting from our shoreline duck blind because we were fearful of potentially murdering a former member of our flock of friends. All of these experiences and more have ultimately woven the intricate web of interconnections that I have developed with the surrounding natural world. I truly love the estuarial waters lapping against our shoreline, their incessant erosive actions constantly altering the natural landscape as well as my own realities and dreams.

            Yet over the decades this tranquil setting has experienced a population shift as some formerly yearly visitors have moved in permanently. Everywhere one wanders - in yards, near beaches, on sidewalks and along roadways – the earth is overrun by masses of webbed footprints, punctuated with green and white speckled excrement. One cannot avoid noticing: Canada geese are no longer Canadian. They no longer come and go with the seasons but have come and stayed for the duration.  Although it is not possible to determine just how exactly resident geese became established in the area many people believe that they descended from the waterfowl stocking programs that were so popular in the early part of the twentieth century. “The earliest Canada goose stocking in Maryland dates back to 1935 when a group of 41 geese were transplanted from the Midwest to Blackwater NWR (National Wildlife Refuge) in Dorchester County.” (1) The imported non-native species grew quickly in number and soon expanded beyond the artificial barriers within which humankind attempted to confine them. As has been such a common thread throughout human history we were actively engaged in a form of ecosystem engineering that spawned a wide range of unintended consequences. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that “U.S. populations have increased at an annual growth rate of 1.14 percent and Canada populations at 4.15 percent, resulting in an overall growth rate of 1.99 percent annually. The largest increases continue to be experienced in the States and Provinces of Atlantic Flyway, which increased from an average of 1.37 million for 2000-02 (1.15 million in the United States and 0.21 million in Canada) to 1.60 million for 2003-05 (1.32 million in the United States and 0.28 million in Canada).” (2)

            As in cases of increased human visitation to a natural area, the presence of non-migratory Geese across the Eastern Shore has had considerable impacts upon both the environment and on other migratory bird species, particularly, and this is ironic, migratory or “non-resident” Canadian Geese. Resident geese, as their name would suggest, remain in a location year round. This allows them inherent advantages compared to migratory geese that visit in predictable seasonal cycles. The resident birds grow larger from steady food supplies and their not having to expend voluminous calories during biannual migrations. They have greater survivability in regards to their young as less stress is placed upon the juvenile birds during their formative months. These birds that stay also experience less predation in the relatively urban or suburban landscapes, a topic that some biologists “consider loss of top predators from ecosystems worldwide due to persecution by humans a crisis as significant as climate change.” (5,89) They can outcompete Migratory Geese for prime habitat as they are able to stake their claim preemptively which in turn makes them less susceptible to the effects of predation. In some cases Resident Geese experience a great deal of interaction with humans which in turn makes them more wary during hunting season than the relatively inexperienced Migratory birds. Resident birds are now commonly causing issues with sectors such as automobile and air traffic as they expand nesting areas into and around roadways and airports. The geese can cause significant damage to outdoor spaces such as golf courses, ponds, residential lawns, sports fields. Urban areas are especially susceptible to invasion by resident geese as these areas generally lack both hunting by humans and natural predation effects. The agricultural industry can suffer losses as when these birds are allowed to engage in unhindered consumption they can strip fields bare. As the cycling of the seasons marches forward the days grow ever shorter and so too does the amount of available food sources. Bands of the larger more established resident geese can drive away migratory bird groups effectively outcompeting them for the ever shrinking food resources.

            Canada Geese have long been a staple of the Eastern Shore community for an assortment of reasons. These birds are a natural resource that have served as food for families making a living off of the land for centuries. Goose hunting was a crucially important driver of the local economy during the twentieth century as people came from all over the state, country, and even the world in order to take part in hunting, eating, and observing these renowned creatures. “The Eastern Shore, though, has been commercializing waterfowl hunts for some 250 years. Ducks and geese intermixed with blue crabs, oysters and fish comprised the daily bounty sent to markets as far north as New York City via trains that left from Baltimore and Havre de Grace ever since the rails had been laid.” (3)To me a great irony exists now in how geese are viewed through the public eye. In the relatively short time span of a decade or two we have gone from enacting moratoriums intended to stave off species collapse to creating controlling strategies that will eliminate large numbers of the “pest” birds. One interesting aspect of this process has been that the population of Canada Geese has demonstrated an extremely positive response to manipulation by human means. This has not been the case with many other migratory waterfowl. An effect of this imbalance has become that an area such as the Chesapeake Bay no longer plays host to the wide variety of species as it did in the past. The ever-expanding population of the geese, both resident and migratory, has made it increasingly difficult for other birds to gain a foothold so that they too can rebound. While Canada geese are not solely responsible for the decline of other species it is increasingly evident that they do have negative impacts on the environment. Eventually Canada Geese may become the only waterfowl to thrive within the local fields and waterways. “We call this collective loss of memory a ‘sliding baseline,’ as successive human generations consider an increasing loss of biodiversity to be normal.” (5, 70) Perhaps some corrective measures will be implemented in the future to reverse this disturbing trend of declining species richness but for now it is a topic of intense scientific concern.

            For me, a personal highlight throughout the year was always the first time I heard the cacophony of newly-arriving geese in the distance or spied their white and black heads pecking aggressively within a recently harvested grain field. This meant that hunting season was upon us and I loved spending time with my father, family, and friends shivering hidden down in a duck blind or goose pit. This was both a rite of passage and a male bonding experience all wrapped into one.  I cherish the memories I have from time spent hunting when I was younger and I still do enjoy the hobby as it allows me to have time out in nature but I have found over time that my enthusiasm has waned. Now that the Geese never truly depart, my fondness for their presence has been significantly diminished. Over the last few years of my college studies I have found summer employment at a farm located just a few miles away from my parent’s house. This property is several hundred acres in size and on it I am tasked with a variety of landscaping tasks such as cutting grass, pruning rose gardens, trimming trees, and upkeep of the swimming pools. An additional duty of mine has involved dealing with the increasingly evident manifestation of resident Canada geese. These nuisance birds generate a variety of collateral damages by their year round presence. They leave piles of feathers and droppings all over the property and these birds produce a tremendous amount of waste—roughly a pound of scat per bird per day. (1) I cannot stress enough the joy of hosing and scrubbing goose droppings off of a dock or crab deck to those unacquainted with the mess involved. The resident flocks eat crops from the fields and create large bare patches in the lawn due to their voracious appetites. They are ill-tempered creatures that hiss and nip at humans and pets alike who may stray too closely for their comfort. While research is still being conducted some scientists hypothesize that the year round presence of Canada Geese is actually contributing to pollution in the local waterways. The birds are helping to increase the exponentially rising levels of nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen contributing to the eutrophication occurring in the water. “In the Potomac and the Anacostia, for instance, more than half of the bacteria in the streams came from wild creatures. EPA documents show that similar problems were found in Maryland, where wildlife were more of a problem than humans and livestock combined”. (4)

            In an attempt to reverse the dwindling numbers of migratory birds a moratorium on harvesting Canada Geese was put in place from 1995 until 2001. This was a resounding success in that the population grew exponentially during the break in hunting. However the numbers of Resident Geese grew as well which is partially how they came to reach the immense population totals that we see today. While management strategies have yet to approach the extensive efforts that were employed in eradicating the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) from Maryland, there are several administrative approaches that are being explored by different State and Federal agencies. It seems each year that both the Resident Goose hunting season is lengthened and bag limits are expanded in an attempt to arrest the skyrocketing population figures. During hunting seasons is realistically the only chance that average citizens can reduce the Goose population through legal means. Canada Geese along with any eggs containing unborn and the nesting sites outside of federally regulated hunting periods are all protected under the National Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Homeowners are encouraged to implement a variety of non-lethal methods in their attempts to drive away the resident nuisance geese. Some of these suggestions include trained dogs, pyrotechnics, noisemakers, lasers, and even remote controlled toys. One topic that has been increasingly emerging to the forefront of environmental discussions is the concept of phenomenon of wholesale species adaptation to human settlement. The situation with the resident geese, as well as with the multitude of other invasive species now found within our state and national borders, is no longer an anomaly. Those of us on Earth now are living in a time period that is experiencing tremendous alteration of the composition of the planet’s flora and fauna. “We are the generations that are overseeing the loss of so much of the diversity of living forms on this planet, the generations that are perhaps yet to fully understand and respect the significance of the intimately entangled, co-evolved, forms of life with which we share this planet.” (6, 5) As global environmental conditions continue to change rapidly it will correspondingly be up to us to adapt to this new normal.

Works Cited

1.     http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Hunt_Trap/waterfowl/geese/ResGeeseProblem.asp

2.     http://www.fws.gov/southeast/news/2006/images/gooseqanda.final.pdf

3.     http://www.shotgunlife.com/wingshooting/wingshooting/heeding-the-call-of-an-eastern-shore-goose-hunt.html

4.     http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801994.html

5.     Fleischner, T. (2011). The way of natural history. San Antonio: Trinity University Press.

6.     Dooren, T. (n.d.). Flight ways: Life and loss at the edge of extinction.

7.     Meanley, B. (1975). Birds and marshes of the Chesapeake Bay country. Cambridge, Md.: Tidewater.

8.     Williams, J. (1993). Chesapeake almanac: Following the bay through the seasons. Centreville, Md.: Tidewater.