So we won the Goose War of 2023! The geese never actually came back after the memorable encounter I described in my last post. This morning I took down the poultry fencing along the shallow end, along with the "don't feed the waterfowl" sign. Yesterday, Sean and I were sitting in the shade there, literally something we couldn't have done last year when that area was goose shit central.
Victory tastes sweet, even if it's a battle we'll have to fight every year. To that end, I'm leaving the other 600-odd feet of fencing in place. It's not very visible in most places, where it's been practically swallowed by pond-adjacent plants. Plus, Todd and Margo are selling their house, and I'd rather not have to repeat the whole fence-permission conversation with the new neighbors (even though we hope they'll be a little more...neighborly). We'll just let the fencing quietly stand on the back portion, and next spring I'll close up the front of the pond again.
I heard my first cicada of the summer this morning, which means our cicada-killer bees should be showing up soon to burrow into the soil around our circle garden. They're harmless, but gigantic - nothing like a bee that can cast a shadow while you're gardening. Speaking of bees, we have an enormous patch of milkweed by the pond that is covered in bees, but no monarchs! I wish I understood what's missing. Let me be a monarch waystation, dammit...