Re: Lights chase away waterfowl, May 7 edition.
As a bird lover, I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment that too many geese are better than none at all, but I suggest that the cause for the fewer geese at Mill Lake does not lie with the lights. For starters, I’m not even sure the lights work, since geese are nesting on buildings around town under street lights, with good results. As well, a few healthy broods did hatch at the lake; certainly enough to keep them from dying out and also enough to provide us all with the joy of seeing goslings’ antics and growth.
Although there were a good many geese in spring, most of them dispersed, as usual, into the countryside for the nesting season. They will return by the hundreds with their young in a few months for the moulting season, when they cannot fly and look to the lake for safety from predators.
The same applies to many of the mallards and other waterfowl. The coots disappear completely for the nesting season, as do the mergansers and cormorants – they raise their young at sea and possibly won’t return until next spring.
Les Friesen
Abbotsford