GEESE TAKE FLIGHT
Friday, September 5th, 2008 -- 12:26 PM
As the weather starts to turn, we can expect to see our friends from Canada passing through.[url=http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Canada_Goose.html]Canada Geese[/url] start flocking in August. They are most active in mid-October as Geese from Ontario join those that summer in Wisconsin as they search for food.
?If you notice them out in the fields, what you?ll see is there?s always a couple birds in the group that aren?t feeding while the others are,? says Kent Van Horn with the Wisconsin DNR, ?They?re kind of standing there looking around?looking for danger and predators while the others feed.?
?They kind of trade off like that,? he notes.
Then there is their famous ?V? formation, which allows for more aerodynamic flight.
?That lead goose will get tired and he?ll drop out of the lead and another bird will take the lead as they?re moving along,? Van Horn says.
Geese can fly hundreds of miles each day. They?re grazers that move south as they run out of food. Depending on the harshness of the winter, they might only end up in northern Illinois, but they can end up as far south as Kentucky.
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