Story Photos
 One of the two remaining White China geese now living at Lake Sacajawea has angel wing, a condition that bends and strips its wings and makes it unable to fly. The disorder is caused when geese get dependent on bread feedings from humans and don't get proper nutrients. Greg Ebersole / The Daily News
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Fowl Treatment: Well-meaning fans may harm geese and ducks at the Lake
Tuesday, January 13, 2009 4:58 PM PST
By Cathy Zimmerman
Printable version
E-mail this articleThey call it “angel wing,” but there’s nothing blessed about it. When a goose has wings that bend unnaturally out to the sides, “it’s because their bones are growing too fast,” said Margaret Green of Longview, an Audubon member who runs or walks around Lake Sacajawea just about every day with her husband, John.
The goose probably has become dependent on eating bread and it’s not getting the nutrients it needs, Margaret said. “Geese get their nutrients from vegetation.”
One of the two remaining White China geese at Lake Sacajawea shows evidence of angel wing, a condition that also concerns Dr. Lee Ann Gekas of Longview, a family practitioner at Kaiser Permanente who wrote to the newspaper about the problem.
Wikipedia describes angel wing, or slipped wing, as a nutrition deficiency that retards the growth of the goose’s wrist and twists it outwards. “Angel wing symptoms include stripped remiges (flight feathers) in the wrist area, or remiges protruding at odd angles.”
The goose at Lake Sacajawea, which clearly shows the syndrome, looks otherwise fine, as the WildCare Web site out of Oklahoma points out can happen. “(A) duck or goose with angel wing may be perfectly healthy but is unable to fly. .... Angel wing is the result of improper nutrition ... In domestic waterfowl, poor diet typically results from feeding ducks and geese at the local park ponds where people give them bread or popcorn.
“These food items cause vitamin and mineral deficiencies that contribute to the disorder.”
There are foods that ducks and geese can safely be fed -- cracked corn and lettuce, for instance -- but “it’s better not to feed them at all,” said John Green, also an avid birder.
First of all, waterfowl need to forage for their food. Secondly, people who enjoy feeding the ducks and geese often frequent the same areas to scatter bread. A whole bunch of ducks flock to be fed, and they end up pooping there. The high concentration of waste can foster the spread of avian diseases, John said.
Finally, bread left on the lake bank attracts rats and beefs up their numbers.
Another practice that may seem harmless or even fun also can hurt waterfowl: “flushing the wildlife with dogs,” Margaret said. Dogs that are off leash often run at a gathering of ducks on the bank, forcing them to suddenly take flight.
That stresses the birds, she said.
“Particularly during sensitive times, like migration, when they are trying to build up energy stores for the journey and for simply survival, or during nesting,” she said, “a careless action on a dog owner’s part can actually lead to the eventual demise of an animal.”
Most area residents show goodwill, and many are curious about the waterfowl that share the solace and space of Longview’s urban lake, she added.
The Greens, who take their binoculars along on their lake jaunts, said they regularly run into people who ask about different species of ducks. The couple has convened groups of birdwatchers at the lake, and Margaret is heading up an effort to get signs installed so that tourists and residents can identify the ducks and birds there.
Longview is on the Washington State Birding Trail, she said, and birders make up for a steady stream of tourists wherever they can observe waterfowl and birds.
At Lake Sacajawea, great blue herons fish the banks. Mallards lead their fuzzy yellow chicks through the wild iris every spring. Cormorants dive for food and perch on snags to spread their wings and dry out.
Those are the permament residents. When cold in the far north kills off insects that feed waterfowl, those birds head south for better pickings, the Greens said, and numerous species spend time at Longview’s lake.
Birders have documented northern shovelers, whose distinct flattish bills scoop nutrients from the water; wood ducks, buffleheads, goldeneyes, lesser and greater scaup, Muscovy ducks, canvasbacks, American coots, pie-billed grebes, wigeons -- including a very rare sighing of a Eurasian wigeon -- and even a loon that lost its way.
Other rare sightings include a pintail and a green-winged teal.
In spring and summer, the songbirds arrive, Margaret Green said.
“It’s harder to see them, because the trees have leafed out,” she said. “They come up from Central and South America and Mexico, and they breed here.”
Bullock’s Orioles, with vibrant orange coloring, have been sighted. Red-winged blackbirds burst forth with their distinctive song in late winter, and by spring, goldfinches flit everywhere.
Aside from wild birds which settle here or drop by on migratory journeys, winged creatures have been brought to the lake by humans, said longtime parks superintendent Al George.
The pair of geese that currently live there are domestic, George said; they came from a farm.
Others get dropped off by people who, “over Easter or something, maybe bought geese or ducks for the kids ....”
One woman had pet geese, and when she moved into town from the country, she brought them to the lake, he said. “It was somewhat controversial, because we had 30 geese,” said George. “They can get a bit ornery, if you’re afraid of geese.”
Public complaints about the honkers prompted the Parks Department to enlist Fish and Wildlife to drug and move the geese to farms.
In 2004, avian botulism “decimated” the waterfowl population at the lake, George said. “It wasn’t transmittable to people, but we lost hundreds of ducks.”
To control the disease, workers whisked away the dead ducks and “broke the cycle,” he said. The ducks then “replenished themselves.”
The birds mostly contend with natural predators -- raccoons, rats and possum that snatch their eggs or the birds themselves.
In rare cases, people have been cruel to waterfowl at the lake. In January of 1996, teens speared a goose with a 2-foot tire iron that pierced its back and came through the breast plate.
It missed the goose’s vital organs. According to news accounts at the time, a local veterinarian removed the tire iron and the goose recovered from the bizarre attack. Citizens offered rewards, and two teens were arrested and prosecuted.
On the other end of the spectrum, Barney Wheeler of Longview did a random act of kindness and built nesting houses for the wood ducks. You can see them high on wooden poles at two locations.
As for the Parks Department, it does little to interfere in the animal life cycle at Lake Sacajawea one way or the other, George said, aside from cleaning up after the messy cormorants, who like to roost in a tall fir overlooking Lions Island and poop all over the gazebo.
Otherwise, workers let the waterfowl fish, flap, fly and fend for themselves. Like the Audubon members, they urge the public to do the same.
If you're interested
Funds and grants are still being sought for the Deery Memorial Signage project at Lake Sacajawea, in honor of Audubon members Harold and Ruth Deery. For more information on that project, please contact Margaret Green at jgreen2317@aol.com
For information about the Southwest Washington Audubon chapter, visit www.willapahillsaudubon.org
feistyone wrote on Jan 13, 2009 3:51 AM:
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