PMHS geese finally take flight

The flock of nearly 50 geese that have been soiling the campus of Prospect Mountain High School (PMHS) for some time seems to have finally gotten the message that the school community didn’t want them there around.

And all it took was about a week of pyrotechnical blasts to get their attention.

School officials said the geese had apparently come to think of the campus as a comfortable migratory spot, especially during the weekends.

“These geese were getting within 20-feet of the front door of the school,” Everett reported. “The staff was always cleaning up after them. But there’s not much you can do with 40 geese. You can’t sweep the fields you’ve got to wait for the rain, for Mother Nature to take care of it.”

As a result, geese feces — which can present both health problems as well as a just plain messy conditions on the sidewalks, parking lots and athletic fields — was virtually unstoppable.

Recently Everett and Business Manager Amy Ransom did some research and came up with a solution: a hand-sized “rocket launcher” that would make a sound loud enough too disturb the tranquility of the area and send the flock fleeing.

“What we’ve been told is that if you do it a couple of times it makes it so it’s not a nice habitat for them and they go elsewhere,” Ransom told the PMHS board recently. “It’s like fireworks — you get a loud explosion.”

One blast is usually enough to scare the animals away for good, Ransom reported.

But that’s not exactly how it went with Everett.

Starting the morning of Sunday, Sept. 10, he did a total of six shots with the loud device before the birds finally left.

“The way it was explained to me by Wildlife Service is that it could take several rounds,” he said. “They gave me about 25 and we shot about six in all.

“We did three on that Sunday but they kept relocating (on the campus),” he explained. “They’d go from front to back.”

But Everett was as persistent as the animals.

“Everyday I’d do one shot in the morning,” he said. “Until finally they got the hint. This last Friday was the last time we saw one.”

Everett reported seeing a few geese on the property last Friday but they were apparently just “passing through” on their annual flight south because they didn’t stay long.

“I hope we’ve taken care of the problem,” he concluded.