Cedar Rapids parks workers trying something new in battle against geese

A device used to scare geese away from the riverfront amphitheater in downtown Cedar Rapids isn’t doing its job. So Cedar Rapids parks workers will try something new this spring.

For the past two years, the city tried to convince the messy geese to move away from the McGrath Amphitheatre along the Cedar River with a remote control device the city nicknamed “FIDO.”

That stood for Fowl Intercept and Dispersal Officer. The idea behind the battery-powered devices, really model airplanes on wheels and skids, was to scoot along the ground and make noise to convince flocks of geese to leave the area.

But with rock-lined banks along the river and lots of obstacles connected to the amphitheater, FIDO kept running into things and breaking down. Cedar Rapids parks superintendent Daniel Gibbins said FIDO just wasn’t getting the job done.

“FIDO does a great job scaring the geese. But in a settling like this, the geese would fly across the river and when the staff left they’d fly back over,” Gibbins said.

So Gibbins chose a powerful laser pointer as the latest “goosefighter” idea for the city. In bright sunlight, the geese don’t react much to the beam that can project up to 5,000 feet.

But at dusk or dawn or in cloudy conditions, the geese or other problem birds flee what they think is an approaching predator.

Chad Peterson, the urban core maintenance supervisor for the city, tried it out Monday morning along the Cedar River. He said it worked as advertised.

“During those darker periods, anytime you pointed it anywhere near the birds they’d take off immediately,” Peterson said.

The city plans to use the laser pointer as the primary weapon to combat the geese along the river and especially near the city’s riverfront amphitheater. However, the five FIDO’s built by parks staff will still find a home in semi-retirement.

They’ll be used on golf course to chase geese where obstacles aren’t such a problem.