LakeShore-Life.Com

Facts:

Life Span of up to 24 years

Mating is for life - If a mate is lost, a new mate is often found.

Average nest size 3 to 6 eggs with as many as 12 possible.

Molting of adult birds occurs every summer, for up to a 6 week period, rendering all birds flightless.
Nests can be very large, up to 4 feet across, built on land and usually close to water.

An adult goose eats up to 4 lbs of grass daily.

An adult goose drops 2 lbs of fecal matter daily .

Population growth ranges from 10 to 17% annually.

Geese typically return to the same nesting and birth sites every year.
 

Effective Management Methods:

Fencing - Since geese prefer areas where they have easy access between food, water, and nesting sites, barriers can be an effective deterrent

Frightening Methods - These methods are convenient and relatively inexpensive. However, geese can become accustomed to repetitious methods especially when they realize that it poses no danger. Frightening programs should be planned early to prevent the birds from establishing a daily feeding pattern. Efforts should be directed at sunrise and sunset when geese come in to feed. Do not allow even one goose to remain as a decoy. Be persistent because it will take several days to break habitual feeding patterns.

Not Effective:

Visual barriers. Temporary fences made of 1 or 2 strands of string tied with streamers have occasionally provided temporary relief from migratory geese. It has been proven that you rarely get satisfactory results with this method on resident geese
 
Plastic owls, snakes, etc. have been completely ineffective in harassing geese. Metallic balloons tethered in the area have produced limited results.

The double-crested cormorant breeds from the coast of Alaska and Nova Scotia south to Mexico and the Bahamas. It winters on both coasts north to southern Alaska and southern New England.

Snapping Turtle
-Chelydra serpentina-

Habitat: found in virtually every waterbody in Rhode Island and Massachusetts ponds and lakes, with muddy bottoms, as well as fresh and saltwater marshes.
Food: Fish, frogs, salamanders, snakes, young waterfowl, insects, aquatic plants - the older a snapper gets the more vegetarian it becomes.
Nest sites: Sandy or loose soil in lawns, fields, driveways or along roadsides.
Eggs: Up to 75 with an average of 20-30, deposited in June and early July; they hatch in 10 to 12 weeks, usually during the month of September; some overwinter and emerge in the spring.
Lifespan: At least 47 years.
Wintering Sites: October to April in mud and leaf litter at the bottom of ponds, lakes, rivers and streams

Interesting Fact: Studies indicate that the temperature if the soil surrounding the eggs determines the sex of the hatchlings. For example, some researchers have found that eggs incubated and 58 degrees, especially in the early stages, will be females.

Massachusetts Audobon Society