Rebecca and Josh Gibson are on a wild goose chase in Hampton Roads.
It’s not the hopeless kind. But it is a Sisyphean task.
The Gibsons own Flyaway Geese, which trains border collies to scare geese away from any desired spot.
Since starting the company in North Carolina in the late ’90s, the husband and wife team have managed wildlife for property owners, universities and even military bases all across the U.S.
They expanded to goose-plagued Hampton Roads a few years ago after being hired to control the bird situation for the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion project.
They now cover almost two dozen spots on both sides of the water, including a Sentara building, the Jefferson Lab and many more.
It’s quickly become one of their favorite markets, Rebecca Gibson said.
“We made the realization that (the) Canada goose problem in the Hampton Roads area was just insane,” she said. “I mean, as big of a problem as I’ve seen probably anywhere in the United States.”
On a recent weekday, the Gibsons were making their daily rounds throughout the region.
They have dog handlers who live in southeastern Virginia, but the couple also comes up regularly to check on things themselves.
They pulled up to an office building parking lot in Chesapeake. A long retention pond sat in the center of several buildings: a goose magnet.
Flyaway was there because the property owner, Divaris, is a client.
Lots of geese were assembled in the water. It’s showtime for Zoe and Greg, two border collies who’ve been along for the ride.
The Gibsons let them out of their car kennels and they started running the pond’s perimeter, while the humans stood on either side giving out directions.
The method doesn’t require any barking or even touching the geese.
Zoe and Greg swam in and out of the water, chasing the geese away with their mere presence.
The birds’ fear is triggered by colors, shapes and patterns, Rebecca said. The movement of a border collie – heads down, tails down, stalking with their eyes – mimics the posture of a hunting wolf, fox or coyote.
“In the mind of a goose, it instantly says, ‘That’s a predator,’’ she said.
Other control methods like decoys don’t work as well because geese are curious animals, she said. Eventually they’ll figure out it’s not real. Having dogs patrol the property every so often reminds the birds to stay away.
Summer is molting season for Canada geese, meaning they stay put and there are lots of new birds. That means Flyaway is often starting from scratch, training the young geese to stay away.
The Gibsons like to use old Celtic commands for the border collies.
“We kind of try to keep the old pieces of the sheepdog in these dogs, just for historical purposes,” Rebecca said.
She makes noises like “shh” and whistles to denote some commands, or phrases like “That’ll do, Greg” for others.
She started the company after doing border collie training for sheep and cattle work. Farmers were starting to turn away from needing that, and she started working under someone training a collie for a golf course.
The business started small with local contracts around Charlotte, then took off with a contract at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
The Gibsons have now been to almost every state – except Alaska – and it’s almost always for the business. Several of their four daughters are involved with daily operations.
Migratory birds used to live on the South Island of the HRBT until a few years ago.
They still often try to nest there, which is unsafe for the birds and can pose a hazard for the bridge-tunnel expansion project, said Larissa Ambrose, environmental manager with the Virginia Department of Transportation.
So, they called in the dogs.
VDOT contracted with Flyaway and the border collies started patrolling the island in 2020.
During the summer birding season, local handlers rotate them out 24/7 from an air-conditioned base on Willoughby Spit, Ambrose said.
She said officials had several options when looking for wildlife control, but they found Flyaway’s dogs particularly impressive. They also liked that the method is approved by animal welfare groups.
“They’re not trained to hurt the birds or kill the birds,” she said. “They’re just trained to chase them and keep them off the island.”
It’s been pretty effective, she said.
Nearby Hampton University noticed. Associate Vice President Bill Thomas said the school’s always had goose problems, as with anywhere else in the region.
But it got particularly bad once the HRBT expansion got underway. Hundreds of geese were swarming campus. Some even chased or attacked people invading their personal space.
Flyaway’s work with them has been “miraculous,” Thomas said.
“I can look over our campus right now, look at the water and the riverfront here … and I see students and adults walking around, having lunch and being able to interact with nature,” he said. “And before we were able to get (geese) under control, it was impossible.”
But, he acknowledged, there’ll always be more geese.
