Duck, duck, goose | Public Spaces

PORTLAND, Ore. - It was quite a show at Westmoreland Park Tuesday morning as folks tried to corral a bunch of ducks and geese and coerce them into a shelter.

Staff with the Audubon Society of Portland spent a couple of hours trying and failing to lead the ducks and geese through a temporary fence and into the shelter. They finally got a bunch of the ones that couldn't fly but many of the others got away.

So why the chase?

Westmoreland Park is due for a huge cleanup project and part of that is getting the ducks and geese out of there. Most of them are domestic waterfowl and were actually dumped at the park by their owners.

"Really, that's no different than abandoning your dog or your cat," said Bob Sallinger, who is leading the project for the Audubon Society. "They're domestic animals. They don't belong in the wild and they don't do very well in the wild."

The cost of the project is a couple of thousands dollars, according to the Audubon Society. And while that may seem like a lot of money to spend on rounding up ducks and geese, it actually costs more to clean up after them at the park every year.

The ducks and geese will be going to private homes and farms. The goal was to collect a lot of them on Tuesday but after getting their feathers ruffled so many times, the birds stopped taking the bait. So crews will try again on Wednesday.