It’s the time of year when geese nest in Indiana and lay eggs to have their young.
AVON (WTHR) - It’s the time of year when geese nest in Indiana and lay eggs to have their young.
Customers at an Avon shopping Plaza, next to the Walmart Plaza, say that’s just what’s going on outside the Hobby Lobby, Gordman’s and Gander Mountain stores, causing a nuisance and some unpleasant moments between geese and people. Eyewitness News captured at least four geese who seemed to have taken up residence outside the stores.
Witnesses say they’re the same ones who have been there for a few weeks, hissing at customers and at times intimidating them as they tried to enter stores or passed by them on the sidewalks.
A store manager at Gordman’s told Eyewitness News it appeared the geese have made two nests in front of the stores and had been guarding them.
Some customers said they have walked by the geese without a problem.
Others have been feeding the birds on the way into stores, throwing them bread crumbs.
The manager at The Hobby Lobby says they also have a problem of geese droppings right outside the store's front door.
He said a retention pond behind the plaza had led to more geese there in the past few years.
One customer said she just tried to stay out of the their way.
“When I first walked up over here, she chased me and I had to walk a big circle around to get to the door and then I just went in this door and when I came out, she chased me again,” said Katie Conklin.
“She’s protecting something,” Conklin said of the goose that chased her.
“I don’t want to hurt it,” said Conklin.
“They can be a little intimidating when they come toward you,” she added.
According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources website, if geese are being aggressive when guarding a nest, you don’t need a special permit from the state to remove the nest or the eggs.
The website though said you do need to register on-line with the US Fish and Wildlife Service before removing either.
On its website, the Indiana DNR advises public places like shopping plazas to adopt a no feeding policy to discourage geese from coming back in future years to make their nests.
