Another Dose of reality...Geese in the Water

Quick, tell me how many water fowl live on Holly Pond? 100?, 200?, maybe as many as 500?
Counting all the geese, ducks, swan, and other shore birds, I have been given counts that range between 150 to 500, so what does this have to do with a dose of reality?
No one likes geese in their parks, but besides the long green things they lay down in the grass, everyone likes to blame the geese for bad water quality at the beach, but I have not found that to be true. As a matter of fact, one of our esteemed environmental activist (Art Glowka, head of Stamford's shellfish commission, who many people roll their eyes when they hear his name and I won't get into that yet) took samples at Holly Pond. Two from where Smokey Joe's is (before the bird life), two at the little park where everyone feeds the birds (mid pond) and two at the outflow. We both noted that Holly Pond is filled with sea grass. The highest values for bacteria were at Smoky Joe's, this coming from various septic and urban issues up the Noroton River on both sides (Darien and Stamford). pH and phosphate increased at mid pond, but the bacteria levels were way down (we assume that the weeds are doing an excellent job here) and everything goes down to just about nothing a the dam. Of course the bacteria we are looking at tells us the geese don't contribute much of anything, and I can prove that with previous samples from Holly Pond and elsewhere. Of course when it rain for a short time the sea grass can't handle the increased flow and things was out (which is why we close for 24 hours), but it isn't the geese that are the problem.
I will take a short break (again5 days) before getting into some of this wonderful stuff.