Geese going BACK south??? huh??

[msj]

Ok, I've been seeing flocks of geese flying south for at least the last week or more. At first I figured that they were taking off and going to circle back to the north. Initially, I'd see a couple of flocks going south and most of the other flocks headed north like they should be this time of the yr.:sigh: Now, I'm seeing really large flocks headed south and almost none headed north.

Anyone else seeing this? Anyone know anything about this?

Are the geese trying to tell us something??? :eek:

[Bluey]

We are right on one of the corridors and I have seen some geese and cranes around lately, which is not common this early.
After the blizzard we had yesterday, I bet they decided to get back South again.;)

[deltawave]

Been watching them for years--flying north or south appears to be something one can observe only in general. :lol:

[greysandbays]

Maybe they've decided that Globull Warming is a bunch of crap and that the other less popular (but probably scientifically more valid) notion that the world climate is actually cooling and perhaps in the prelude to an ice age makes more sense.

[sk_pacer]

If you watch closely, they will also be flying east and west - looking for feed and open water; around here, neither exists yet.

[Mav226]

Maybe the Southern geese are more friendly.

[KathyR]

Canada Geese-hate them. We live on a lake. They roam and poop everywhere.

[MistyBlue]

Canada Geese travel in enormous flocks when changing winter/summer locations. They tend to travel at first in small family flocks and congregating at common "layover" sites where there's good forage and room and they meet up with more and more and then take off in huge numbers when they've built up enough. Once they've migrated back to their local area in those huge numbers...they then take off in smaller groups again to the lake/pond they were born/prefer or look for new places. That can be in any direction from their congregating place. They can layover for a few days up to a few weeks. Once they get ready to mate and nest, they split off and find thier own spots.
The vast flocks flying are quite a sight...it's easier to fly thousands of miles with up hundreds of geese in one formation. Saves energy when that many draft off one another. Seeing a few hundred geese (in some areas 1000 or more!) coming in for landings or taking off...it's a fantastic sight!

[wateryglen]

In the mid Atlantic east coast area; Canadas pretty much DON'T migrate and stick around all year long. Lucky us! So when you see them flying, frequently they are moving mornings & evenings to roost sites or different ponds or water sites. They graze in pastures/cornfields daytimes and go to water at night. We do see snow geese migrations which are fantastic to see. Often they land in a harvested cornfield to feed at night; thousands of them. And yes, Canadas are forces of nature when they are riled up. You oughta see them come after a dog trying to swim out and get them!!! Surprise!!!!!

[pintopiaffe]

It's the volcanoes about to erupt.

:yes:

I've no idea.

But Mother Nature sure is PISSED lately. The geese prolly have more smarts than the stupid hoomans. :uhoh:

And yes, Canadas are forces of nature when they are riled up. You oughta see them come after a dog trying to swim out and get them!!! Surprise!!!!!

:eek: :eek: (insert the eek-eek music from Psycho here! :lol: )

I can just picture my Good Big Black Dog (rest his soul) trying that. The one who wanted to go play with the black bear... :uhoh: I just always told people he was 'gifted.' Sounded better than "speshul." :winkgrin:

[msj]

I've got a corn field across the road from my farm so I see tons of the Canadian geese stopping over for the night. As long as they crap there and fertilize the field the farmer and I are both happy. :)

Last spring I had a small flock of 5-7 land in the pasture when the horses were out. The geese proceeded to mind their own business at one end until my OTTB decided he was going to go check them out. As he trotted toward them two of the geese promptly started towards him and he rather rapidly (bucking and snorting) turned and left the scene! :lol: :lol: The old QH had enough sense to keep his distance. :)

We've got a pair and a single that live here yr round and hop between the corn fields and the ponds. Sometimes the pair will allow the single one to join them but not too often. I kinda feel for the single and keep hoping it will find a mate.

[Chief2]

Once the water opens, we get loads of them. Poop all over the place! Still, it's hard work to be a migrating goose. There is a good film published by the Nature documentary people called, Migration. It's a lot of work hauling those bodies thousands of miles through all kinds of weather, with not always enough places to land and rest, only to have to turn around and repeat the trip back north. Some of them spent the night sleeping on the decks of frigates and freighters out in the ocean just to have a place to rest. Those that couldn't find a place to rest often died. I used to get ticked off at the geese for the goose poop. Now I just feel sorry for the migrating bands. This year was the first year we saw Snow Geese migrating, too.

The residential Canada geese, on the other hand, could stand to move on somewhere else once in a while, thank you. Too much poop! :)

[MunchkinsMom]

The residential Canada geese, on the other hand, could stand to move on somewhere else once in a while, thank you. Too much poop! :)

You need to tell your barn manager to let her dogs out there occasionally to try to chase them away? I remember the geese, and that my horse thought for sure they were killers!

Most of the robins that were in a large abundance in my pasture last month have gone elsewhere, but there was one out there the other morning, not sure if that is a sign that it is not warm enough up north for them to leave yet.

[Chief2]

LOL! :D I don't see that happening anytime soon.

[minnie]

The robins arrived in Virginia about 3 weeks ago, stuck around for 10 days and now the hoards that were here have dwindled to about 25% of their original numbers, so I imagine they're continuing north. My fields and trees were just chock full of them for over a week before they started drifting off.

[cherham]

They have all flown to Toronto...they are everywhere around here this week :) I wonder what their average air speed is?

[FlashGordon]

MSJ not a good sign that all the birdies are headed back south....!

Saturday was beautiful here, I took my big heavy blankets home from the barn. And today it is 30, and SNOWING.

[wendy]

I wish our geese would head south. Or north. Or well, anywhere but here. They live here year-round in huge pooping flocks.

[msj]

MSJ not a good sign that all the birdies are headed back south....!

Saturday was beautiful here, I took my big heavy blankets home from the barn. And today it is 30, and SNOWING.


Well, we're supposed to go back up to the 50's today so hopefully you won't need the heavy blankets any more. :)

Flash, have you seen any geese headed south or is it just over my house? :eek:

[Jenn2674]

I'm curious, how did you know that they were truly headed south? I mean, what if they just found a better pond or location to lay over for a few days. You can only see a few miles at best, I am sure that they don't just fly north in the spring and south in the fall. They are flying all over the place while there overall position is moving north and south.

[crickett14502]

They CAN'T. Simple as that.. canNOT. NOT allowed. OMG I'm so ready for spring...

[deltawave]

In my observations the flocks that fly VERY high are fairly consistently going north or south, depending on the season. Small and/or low-flying flocks are just taking a short side-trip somewhere, looking for a McDonalds or circling back because they missed their exit. :)