Honk – and hit the brakes – if you love Canada geese
Cathy Clark has a problem with honking in traffic by her property near Fredericton – but she's not trying to stop it. She wants motorists to make way for a gaggle of highway-crossing geese.
About four dozen Canada geese and their goslings have nested in a pond on Clark's property in Upper Kingsclear, just outside Fredericton.
The only thing separating them from the St. John River is a stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway. Three times a day, the geese waddle across the road to see if the water is any better on the other side.
Clark said the geese are a hazard to themselves and to passing cars, which whiz by at 100 kilometres per hour or more.
She has asked the province to put up warning signs along the highway, but so far, the Transportation Department has refused.
"If you have a string of 48 geese crossing the road and you're having motorcycles coming at you at 110someone is going to get hurt soon," Clark said.
The Transportation Department said wildlife crossing signs are reserved for large animals like deer, or moose
"New Brunswick is a rural province," explained Transportation spokeswoman Tracey Burkhardt.
"Drivers can come across small animals on the highway at any time. They can come across people's pets at any time. Drivers need to take evasive manoeuvres and drive carefully, and we hope that they're doing that."
Clark said the geese come to her pond every spring and parade their goslings across the highway in increasing numbers as the summer progresses.
"When they decide they're crossing the road to go over to the river, the St. John River, and go back and forth, they're going to do it. You can't stop them," she said.
She said the geese routinely get smacked by passing traffic. "When I come home at night, the first thing I look for when I'm coming down the road to see if there's any laying there dead. It breaks my heart it really does."
Clark said she doesn't know how else to protect the geese, and hopes people will pay attention and slow down when they get near her property on Highway 102.
"I've tried to talk to the geese but they won't listen to me."