Barbican Living
The birds
For years, Summer in the Barbican has been plagued with Canada Geese. The perennial problem with Canada Geese is partly caused by residents feeding birds with bread. If provided with food, they flock in. If there is no food, they will leave. The more food there is, the more geese come. The next generation of geese then tend to return to where they were born.
In the Summer they lose their flight feathers and must find food around the water, which is why they leave the lake and move on to the gardens. They are a grazing bird, so they like areas of short grass – usually the short grass you are lying on, trying to get a tan.
The problem is that only someone with a licence can cull them and the licence has to be for a particular area. So although the Corporation have lots of people with licences in Epping Forest, they can’t do it in the City.
Canada geese abuse anyone who comes near. They make a hell of a noise. They make a terrible mess. All they need is skate boards and they could be local children. The Corporation seems powerless to intervene.
The ducks are here all the year round. They are mainly Mallards. They have to keep their nests and their eggs away from foxes and other predators so they often build their nests in residents’ window boxes. When the ducklings are very young they are fed in the nest, but once they get large enough to swim, the parents simply through them over the edge. If there is water underneath, that’s fine, but they are not smart creatures and they often choose window boxes over concrete. If that happens you have to tell the staff, who will come and move the nests or the birds.
The important thing is to catch the mother first, put her in the lake, then bring down the ducklings who will follow her. If you do it the other way around, the mother will abandon the ducklings.
It seems natural to feed bread to ducks. But the Parks & Gardens people say we shouldn’t, that it just encourages more ducks to come, it isn’t the right kind of food, and ultimately it silts up the lake.
