Golfers Cry Foul Over Waterfowl

Bill Harrison still recalls the one-shot penalty he had to take when a bird knocked his ball into the water.

“I could have strangled the thing,” he said.

The culprit was one of the hundreds of ducks, geese and other waterfowl that have moved onto the Simi Hills Golf Course. When the birds aren’t attacking balls, their droppings knock putts offline. Now, golfers are losing patience with the fowl.

“They drive some golfers nuts,” said Al Church, general manager of the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District, which owns the golf course.

Church said he gets so many inquiries about what he calls “district ducks” that he has an inch-thick file about them.

It’s not just the golfers that have nasty encounters with the birds. Sometimes golf course geese bite the hands of children who feed them crumbs.

“Some of those geese can get pretty mean,” Church said.

The park district has ways of dealing with problem ducks. Even though it hasn’t done it for more than two years, the district has shipped troublemakers to Lake Casitas, said Rick Johnson, park district spokesman.

“It’s a huge, huge lake,” said Bill Wadlington, a park ranger at Lake Casitas. “We have hundreds of geese here, and I have never had a report of geese causing problems.”

To keep the birds well fed, the California Department of Fish and Game stocks the lake with fish every couple of years.

“But park visitors offer the best feeding service,” Wadlington said.

In Simi Valley, park district officials plan to build two additional ponds at Rancho Santa Susana Community Park, where more birds are expected.