Goose harassment and low ponds

It has been a bit of a back and forth this spring because of the snow coming and going, but it seems that we are on the course for good this time and we have been busy finishing up tree work and course clean up. Another thing we've been doing is harassing the geese on the course.

Right now, geese are in the process of pairing up and finding a nice place to raise a family. Some of them think that Barrington is a great place for child rearing, so we are trying to convince them that it isn't. If you live in the neighborhood, you may have seen me driving around later in the day shooting pyrotechnics at the geese to scare them away. We have been using Bird Bangers and Siren Screamers to scare them off and so far these have been very effective. However, we're also using a green laser early in the morning to scare them off. For some reason they don't like green lasers, and for very obvious reasons our neighbors wouldn't like us shooting off bangers or screamers first thing in the morning, so the laser is a great solution. Combining these harassment techniques should help to minimize the number of geese that are here throughout the summer. Below are the tools of the trade. 

However, if some geese decide that they want to lay eggs in Barrington, we will be able to get an egg shaking permit that will allow us to destroy the eggs before they hatch. We have been working with the Department of Wildlife since last July in an effort to control our goose populations, and if we have any nests on the property we will be issued an egg shaking permit. If all goes well, we should see a lot less geese this summer. 

About a week ago we noticed that the water levels in the ponds at #5 tee looked a little low. Since then, the levels have continued to go down. It seems that with the heavy ice this year, the overflow drain in the large pond left of the ladies tee was knocked off its base just enough to let some water flow through about four feet lower than the overflow is set at. This has resulted in the water draining out of the pond down to the level of the crack. We dealt with this issue last year in the pond next to #5 beverage station, so we know what to do and will be able to fix it, however we must wait for the ice to melt so that we  are able to work on it. 

Here you can see how low the water level is. The other two ponds that feed into this one are drained almost to the bottom. 

This is a picture from the top of the overflow. Once the ice melts, we will fill the crack with hydraulic cement which will stop the leak and allow the pond to fill up to its desired level. 

So, that's what we've been up to. Hopefully next week warms up like the forecast is calling for and we can start to really get the course into nice shape for you guys. 

Ian