Canada geese are coming back north and you may bump into some if you're walking in provincial parks or on golf courses. (Canadian Press)

By Rob Mahon

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Winter may be lingering, but there are signs of spring slowly returning, and one of those is geese coming back from the south. As they get more common in populated areas, sometimes they can bump into people and be a bit bad-tempered.

When it comes to dealing with aggressive geese in nesting season, the best thing to do is avoid them. Luckily, this is fairly easy to do as they’re not looking for confrontations with people themselves.

“When you’re out there in the wild, and you’re looking around, monitor your surroundings and see what’s going on,” said Don Erhart, VP of the Prince Albert Wildlife Federation. “If you see a female sitting on a nest and a male is sitting somewhere nearby, I’d give them a little extra room.”

According to Erhart, wildlife in general would rather stay away from people. When it comes to geese, we are quite a bit larger than they are.

“They’re no different than any other sort of wild animals,” Erhart said. “They’re not looking at us as a food source.”

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There are circumstances under which you’re more likely to run into geese. Being a golfer, Erhart has seen quite a few of them on courses over the years.

“I’ve golfed on courses that have quite a few geese,” said Erhart. “They’ve got their own little collection together, and I would avoid that to the extent possible. I suppose there’s occasions where you might hit your golf ball into a group of them and you wander in.”

The other occasion where Erhart has seen geese get aggressive is when people are baiting them or feeding them. Most parks and wildlife preserves will have signs warning you not to feed wildlife, and for good reason.

“If you’re throwing breadcrumbs and whatever and you run out of breadcrumbs, they might continue to go after you for more breadcrumbs,” said Erhart. “It’s just a good practice. I know people like to get close to wildlife, but they have to remember it is wildlife. They’re not tame, they’re not pets, and if they have young, they’ll vigorously defend those young.”

According to geeserelief.com, the most common injuries from an aggressive goose happen when a person tries to avoid the goose but trips and falls. They warn that, if confronted by a goose, you should not turn your back on the bird but rather back away slowly and keep facing it at all times.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP