CANADA GEESE

    Yesterday morning, I saw several flocks of Canada geese fly over. We don't have any open water except for some parts of rivers. Now, in some fields the snow is gone and they could feed.

    Nevertheless, they are probably not going to land here and stay. No, the first geese here are going on. Water isn't open here and they are flying further north, What gives?

   Well, some Canada geese fly to lakes on the arctic coast.  They stay  on the ice for six to eight weeks. They eat  debris on the ice from material that has blown on the ice during the winter. There are also insects on the ice at that time of year. There will be fresh water on top of the ice.

   When most of the snow  and ice have melted they will nest. 

   Now Innuit hunters take advantage of this situation and harvest large numbers of geese. They use white material to make a blind that allows them to move. They are a able to harvest many geese. Meat and down it valuable at that time. These days hunters fly out and make a camp and stay a few days. People who have permanent jobs go on these hunts.  

      I don't know about their behavior in the fall. I do know that it's pretty cool when flying, to look down and see flocks of geese below you.

A GOOSE FIX TODAY

     Today was a beautiful warm fall day. It's the first time all summer that I've had a chance to get out to one of my favorite places. The geese were there to put on a show for me. About thirty geese were gathered in front of a bench. They stayed and chattered. I think they were commenting about me not giving them a handout. All summer people would sit at this spot and feed the geese.

     Since they clustered around the bench I took some photos. I always have to get a few photos of Canada geese. 

A SUNNY WALK

     Yesterday , Oct 12, we had a nice sunny afternoon. After a discussion ???with the micro manager we decided to have lunch out. I didn't want lunch out. I wanted to walk on the trails all afternoon. Well, she said , "We'll go for lunch and then we'll go for a walk and then we both get what we want."  I'm not really sure of the logic in this one.

     Anyway, we went to one of my favorite places and there were thousands of Canada geese. They are getting ready to fly south but not right away. Canada geese will stay here as long as there is open water and the food isn't covered by snow. At this time the Canada geese are slowly moving south from the far north. There will still be some geese on the Mackenzie Delta.

    However, this is what I found yesterday.

     Oh yes, The bird naming people, the American Ornithologist's Union,  are discussing dividing Canada geese into six different species. Wait for it.

Curious Geese

       On Saturday I went to a wetlands with my Saturday morning bird group.
  
       We decided to try something we often talk about but never do. We would sit on a bench and look at went by us. The pond we chose was about 3 hectares( 6 or 7 acres). When we sat down there was a pair of geese with some goslings on the far side of the pond. There was some goose chattering. the pair slowly moved , all the while being very alert. We didn't know it but they were deciding whether they should come and visit us. After about 15 min the geese and their goslings were right in front of us. I think they were looking for  handout but we had to disappoint them.

      There were a number of ducks on the pond and some sparrows were in the brush along the pond. we got glimpses of the sparrows but not enough to make an identification. they did have a beautiful song.

Loosey Goosey

     I got out of the house for a while yesterday afternoon and visited a local watering hole for geese. The ponds in the photos were actually reclaimed gravel pits. Now they make a fairly good wetlands habitat. 

     The geese were quite willing to hang around and pose .

    That's right. These geese are sitting out on the ice. They've been here about three weeks. There is open water about 200 m away on the river where they can feed. Many of these geese will continue north until they land on Arctic islands where they will finally nest.

     There were some smaller geese further out which I think are another form of Canada geese. They have different markings.

      So the ice is very solid and nothing has melted around the edge. I could still skate on this ice.

      This large pond is the reclaimed gravel pit. Islands and points have been constructed to give some variety to the pond. a pair of loons spends each summer here.

Canada Geese:Joys of Spring

       For the last two days flocks of Canada geese have been flying over on the way north. After a long winter it is quite shocking to be out and suddenly hear a strange sound...Canada geese honking. It's quite surprising to hear the honking and then watch as a number of geese fly over. There will sometimes be a flock or two every hour and it tapers off by noon.

      The geese flying in at this time probably do not stay here. They may take a short rest for a day or two and feed , but they will 



photo Bill Heinsen

usually continue north. They will land on ice covered lakes and wait for the ice to thaw and then set up nests. When I lived in Inuvik the aboriginal people would goose hunt in the spring. Husky lakes were a well known hunting area. The geese responded to decoys and the hunters would camoflage themselves in white. This hunt was always quite successful.

      So with the coming of geese other species should not be far behind. Today I heard a crow so tomorrow we will probably have many crows.