After a fake wolf and shiny CDs failed to chase Canada geese and their droppings from the Berlin, Conn. municipal, the men’s club at the course raised $4,000 to buy the machine, which is being credited with helping the club increase play and have a “tremendous year.” The “Goosinator” is proving to be such a hero at the course, its restaurant is preparing to create a special drink in its honor.

 

C&RB has frequently reported (http://clubandresortbusiness.com/?s=Canada+geese)

on the efforts of country clubs and golf course to deal with the unappealing and unsanitary conditions created by flocks of Canada geese who find club environs to be so attractive, they often set up permanent residence on their fairways, greens and waterways.

While the problem has escalated to the point where some clubs have resorted to seeking permits to allow the geese to be shot on their properties, others have resorted to dog services or the use of special devices like the “Goosinator,” a bright-orange foam device made by a Colorado-based company that buzzes loudly as it moves by propeller on wheels or skis on grass and through sand traps, water, snow or ice.

Timberlin Golf Club in Berlin, Conn., put a Goosinator into action this season, the Hartford Courant reports, and the device is being credited with not only cleaning up what course regulars termed a “minefield” of goose droppings on the property, but also helping to increase play at the course.

The Goosinator is proving to be so popular at Timberlin GC, the Courant reports, that Par Fore The Course, the club’s restaurant, is considering adding a new cocktail to its bar offerings. “The Goosinator” cocktail is still in the works, the Courant reports, but it will have Grey Goose vodka among its ingredients, according to the restaurant’s managers.

Conditions at Timberlin used to be downright disgusting, course regular James Green told the Courant, because of the goose droppings. “It was like a minefield out there from the geese, especially the back nine,” Green said. “It got on your shoes, clubs, cart. It’d get into your car and you’d smell that odor. Terrible.”

But then members of Timberlin’s men’s club heard about the Goosinator, raised the funds to buy the $4,000 machine, and donated it to the town, the Courant reports. Peter DeFazio, President of the men’s club, has become the main operator, but after first needing to spend several hours each day stalking the geese with the machine (which causes them to scatter and move almost immediately), DeFazio now only needs to make “maintenance visits” to the course to keep the geese away, the Courant reports.

“It’s been a huge change,” the club’s Assistant Director of Golf, Gary Salvio, told the Courant while leading a tour of a now-gooseless 13^th fairway. “We used to set up blowers at least once a day to clear goose poop off the greens. We don’t need to do that anymore.”

Marc Bayram, Timberlin’s head golf pro, told the Courant that the course had previously set up a fake wolf, but that proved ineffective as soon as the geese realized it didn’t move. Course workers then hung shiny CDs by ponds to try to scare the geese away, but the birds eventually ignored them as well.

But now, Bayram says, the Goosinator acts “like a super predator.”

“It stalks the geese on land and even goes on top of the water, which is the birds’ safety zone,” he says. “This year, the cart wheels are clean. So are shoes. Golfers are happy. We’re having a tremendous year so far. Play is up.”

When on goose patrol, the Courant reports, DeFazio zooms around the course with the Goosinator secure in a frame that he added to the cart the course staff lets him use to do his volunteer goose-chasing work. DeFazio has his own IT business and lives close to Timberlin, so it’s been easy for him to find time to chase away geese since the club bought the device, he told the Courant.

DeFazio has now made such a study of Canada geese, he added, that he can claim to have a degree in “gooseology.” He learned quickly how to make the battery-powered, one-horsepower device move stealthily on the grounds, advancing slowly toward geese as a living predator might.

Geese return to mate and raise families in places they have in the past, DeFazio told the Courant, so he made sure to start using the Goosinator in early March, to make sure the birds would be properly encouraged to find another permanent breeding ground.

Canada geese are protected by the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Courant reports, and as a result, hunting of the birds—including the ones that overwinter in New England and no longer migrate—is highly restricted, especially in urbanized areas. Canada geese have become enough of a concern in Connecticut that state wildlife officials have published a “Canada Goose Fact Sheet,” which estimates that several thousand of the birds now live in the state year-round.