As the summer goes on, you might notice more geese lingering on your lawn

Caption

In June and July, Canada geese molt their flight feathers, leaving them grounded for the summer.

Credit: Georgia Department of Natural Resources

As the summer goes on, you might notice more Canada geese on your lawn.

Starting in late June, Canada geese are flightless — they’re busy molting feathers they used to migrate across North America.

Kara Nitschke, the state migratory gamebird biologist, says that as a result, you might see more geese hanging around homes and businesses — and sometimes, being very territorial.

“If they have a nest in a really inconvenient location where people travel a lot, if there's people coming in and out and there's a nest nearby, then they can really get kind of bullied by these geese," she said. "They can hurt you.”

Canada geese are protected by federal and state law and cannot be killed outside of their proper hunting season. But Nitschke recommends a few harassment and deterrent techniques to keep geese away.

People who want to keep geese off their property can try certain techniques including motion activated sprinklers, scarecrows or decoys of predators such as coyotes.