And children, that is why we never feed the ducks.....-gctid378655

[Foster]

I'm going to start posting my memoirs here, since it's clear that I'm shedding IQ points at an alarming rate.

Flashback to 12 years ago. I have a brand new Adventurecraft. White, clean, bright and not a speck on it. People next dock over have this habit of feeding the geese off the back of the boat. And geese are smart, they figure out the big white things are food stations, so they are always around. I try to get the people to stop, but to no avail. So I get adept at goose dropping removal.

The next spring, same deal, my nice clean boat and the morons are feeding the wild birds. "What harm can it cause?" they say. Sigh. Then they say "See you in two weeks!" So I make a quick stop to my local Southern States farm store and buy a huge (25 lb) bag of cracked corn. And yes, don't get too far ahead, but I spread it across their boat. Nice even spread from stem to stern.

When they come back in two weeks, they have a 28' guano barge. Ducks and geese everywhere. I remark "Oh, they must have missed you, they were looking for food". From that day on they chased the birds away.

Back in the present, Saturday afternoon. Pair of ducks, female and male, float by. I toss the end off my sandwich and they eat the bread. We get the heel of bread, toss it to them and lure them closer and closer to the boat. Great fun, life on the bay is amazing.

30 mins later, I hear a 'fuffter fuffter' sound. Stand up, look over and the ducks are on my swim platform. Umm, not what I wanted to see, so I chase them off. Wash, rinse, repeat 3 more times before they get the hint and paddle away. (Side note, ducks have an attitude, you chase them away and they do the flap wings stand up in the water, like a kid going "neener neener" ) Spraying with the aft washdown was the trick.

Great night on the boat, super dinner, watched a movie, slept well. Up at 6 AM to check to make sure that we've not drifted over night. Look out into the cockpit and there are the ducks sitting there, clearly waiting for breakfast. Scoot them off the boat, and as a parting gift I have a plate sized puddle of something that wasn't there last night.

And children, that is why we never feed the ducks.....

[capt._ron]

Hahahahahahahahhaa, excellent advise. It's ok to feed the fish and the turtles but no duck, payback comes during duck season.

[Guest]

At my marina there is a warning. Feed the geese and you are looking for a new place to park your boat. I can only imagine what is costs them to clean up after the geese. I feeel sorry for the harbormater.

[Guest]

The biggest thing we have is ducks, and nobody minds if they are fed. They stay off the boats for the most part, other than the abandoned ones that nobody has been on in a long time. Not sure how they know. I've never had duck crap on my boats.

[Guest]

Great story, Foster!

Thanks

[boatworkfl]

We have the same problem in Alaska with charter boats cleaning fish and throwing the guts of the back of the boat on the way in, the gulls fly over and drop those white gobs on their boat, then the seagulls enter the harber and drop more on the rest of us.

[Guest]

Feed the geese here, and they tell their 1000 friends! Bad idea. Great story.

[MidnightSun]

We must have dumb Canadian geese/ducks.:right We are plagued with geese at our marina however in the 6 years I have been there I have never seen a problem with poop on the swim/deck. An occasional bomb from the sky maybe once a year but that is it. Lots of ducks also. I have had fun throughout the last 15 years hand feeding ducks/geese from the swim platform throughout the 1000 islands with the kids whom are now 18. This was done when anchored for the evening or even several days however in all these years I have never seen one on or crap on my swim platform. Wonder why the difference between you and me?

[Guest]

The rules are very blatantly displayed at my marina. If you feed the wild birds, you need a new slip for the next season, no excuses, no explanations, just prepare for departure.

[Chief_Alen]

Ducks and geese are very tasty. Want a recipe ?

[Guest]

hahaha

"When they come back in two weeks, they have a 28' guano barge. Ducks and geese everywhere. I remark "Oh, they must have missed you, they were looking for food"."

I would have loved to have seen a picture of their faces as well as their vessel....:worth:worth

good information to know when we are at the docks!!!! thanks for posting sharing

[Guest]

We don't have a problem with the waterfowl for the most part.........but................

The first year we had our boat we were on "B" dock. "B" dock is the boat lift dock. Our boat was the only one that wasn't on a lift. A pair of Ducks had decided to make our swim platform their nightly roost.

Every time we came to the boat we had to hose off all the Duck droppings before we could use the platform. That in its self wasn't to big of a problem. The problem was that it stained the platform. After several months of cleaning and several jars of FSR, we decided to put an end to the problem.

The following week, Jan and I came to the boat for an over night stay. On the way to the boat, I stopped at Home Depot and bought a half dozen pieces of tack strip. We laid then on the platform at the end of the night and went to bed. About an hour later, we were suddenly awakened to the sounds of two very surprised and angry Ducks. Every piece of tack strip had been displaced and two were floating in the water behind the boat. As we stood in the cockpit of the boat watching the Ducks swimming away, we were regaled in what could only have been a version of profanity spoken in Duck. We left the tack strips on the platform for the following week but they were never displaced again.

Problem solved.

[Guest]

If any of you in the PNW have ever been out on the Peninsula, in the 80's it wasn't legal to throw your fish cleanings in the water except for a few places.

Of course these places were quickly figured out by the seagull's, so those who knew stayed well clear of the cleaning tables and those first couple of dock spaces were wisely left unoccupied. So one evening here comes some newbies in a brand new B/R and they're thrilled to get the open spot right up front at the ramp to shore

O-dark thirty comes and everyone goes to fish, comes back and cleans fish, and by noon that boat was more poop and birds than it was boat at that point!

[Iproff]

Strange you admit that you had no problem vandalizing a fellow boaters boat rather than talk to them about the problem or talk to the marina. You would be tossed out of our marina for doing that.

[Foster]

Iproff wrote:
Strange you admit that you had no problem vandalizing a fellow boaters boat rather than talk to them about the problem or talk to the marina. You would be tossed out of our marina for doing that.

I did talk to the marina, and to the four nearest owners. All were in agreement, this isn't a stunt to pull off without others seeing it.

I did talk the marina the year before, nothing they could or wanted to do.

And I talked to the owners. So I played my Hillary Clinton cards and they were ignored.

Granted it was a two year period, so I fail at waiting around. But life is short, there may not be a next summer, so I move forward when I can.