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Geese return to spruced up Lake Gambill Goose
By Krista Goerte
Published September 26, 2009
It’s a refuge — a little slice of peace, quiet and tranquility — not only to the geese that call it home, but to human visitors as well.
Geese have been a constant presence at the Gambill Goose Refuge since 1922. Located on Farm Road 2820 on Lake Gibbons, the 600-acre refuge has been home to as many as 7,000 geese at a time. Along with the attraction of the geese are the swimming holes, making the refuge a popular, if relatively unknown, summer relaxation spot for locals.
The refuge started when Lamar County resident John C. Gambill bought a pair of crippled Canada geese from a passing trapper. In 1922, a dozen wild geese passing through landed with his two geese. He and his sons fed the visitors, and from that point on, Gambill’s property became a private goose reserve.
In the 1930s, state game warden Sam Turner suggested in order to better protect the geese, Gambill’s land could be converted into a state reserve, which was finalized in 1934. The geese were moved to their present location on Lake Gibbons in 1959, two years before Gambill died, but not before he was able to realize his dream of showing nature’s creatures to local youth.
After Gambill’s death, the refuge became a cooperative project between the state of Texas, Lamar County, City of Paris and the citizens of Lamar County before becoming the responsibility of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The City of Paris is now responsible for its upkeep.
The Canada Goose makes up about 95 percent of the geese that make their home at the refuge, but other types of geese and other species of birds will also visit.
But the smaller numbers of geese today — under 300 — have sparked determination from Justin McGee, refuge caretaker, to bring more geese back to the area.
Reminiscent of Gambill and his sons, McGee and his two children, Lane, 7, and Taryn, 4, tend and watch the geese with enjoyment.
McGee moved to the keeper’s cabin in August of 2008 after the retirement of the last keeper. McGee works with the city’s parks department, and learned about the refuge through his job.
“It was just me and my two kids,” McGee said. “With me working at the parks department, they wanted somebody in-house, that way they can keep up with it on a day to day basis on how things are going, what repairs need to be done, stuff like that.”
McGee said both him and his children love the place and even tending the geese and the grounds.
“They’ll go down there, they help me,” McGee said of Lane and Taryn. “We have three automatic feeders. I’ll fill them up, and they’ll get on the timer and push the test button and make sure they all work. It (the feeder) will spin for 10 seconds at a time, and they like to run around it while it’s spitting the feed out.
“I’ve been here for a year now, just now getting into the routine of how things go, when the geese come in and all that,” he said. “I’m hoping I can stay out here for a while and get it back up to where it becomes an attraction again to the public. I like watching the geese. To me, they are very fascinating. I’d like to get them where they stay out here more often.”
Although most of the geese are fairly skittish, the family has made friends with one goose in particular. Thomas, as the children named him, is a Canada Goose that is easily recognizable because unlike his flockmates, he is only white and grey, without the black coloring.
“We call him Thomas, and he’s the only one that will come up here (close to the house),” he said. “We can get within five or 10 feet of him. The kids named him Thomas, so that’s what everyone knows him as.”
In addition to the never-ending chore of mowing, McGee said he is working to improve the swimming areas by replacing battered concrete picnic tables. Cleaning up trash and glass left behind by visitors to the swimming area is another regular task. The visitor’s booth also is on his fix-it list because of its deteriorating condition.
The small two bedroom, one bath, circa 1960s keeper’s house, where McGee and his children stay, also involves regular maintenance.
Building the refuge back up to its former flock is one of McGee’s main goals.
“When I first got out here, there wasn’t many at all,” he said. “I started keeping them fed, and about mid-December was the most I’ve seen. I quit counting at about 225.”
October sees the geese really start to move into the refuge, McGee said, with December probably being the most heavily populated.
Several factors tend to draw geese to the area.
“The reason why I think the geese stay here is because you can get motorized boats on the lake, but nothing over a 10-horse motor. There’s not any kind of scare or danger for the geese on the lake like there would be at Pat Mayse.”
Another factor is the carefully tended wheat fields on the property — 25 acres that provide the geese with a food source.
“Usually the first week in September, it’s about 25 acres we plant,” McGee said. “We’ll fertilize it, and when it starts growing, that’s an attraction for the geese because they will eat the wheat as it is coming up. They also use it as kind of a safe haven, too. They’ll do their nest laying in it. When it comes up for harvest season, we’ve got a guy that cuts it and bales it, and then it stays pasture land until the next fall comes around. It is all for the geese.”
Eventually, McGee said he would like to bring school groups out to educate them about the geese and the refuge, “give some knowledge to the younger generation.”
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