Posted on 01/04/2011 1:22:05 PM PST by Pinkbell
All of which is true—but the fact remains that a large part of migratory birds, if not the larger part, cover their distances at night. Easiest by far to notice are mallards and Canada Geese. It’s not something that has been well explained by ornithologists, many of whom chalk it up to birds observing the stars for flight patterns, which I don’t buy much. But still they do it.
Well, there were just bout 30 live ones in my backyard a minute ago, so Connecticut looks safes.
Growing up in the mid-west; I have often seen late evening flights of geese in their ‘V’ formations heading south. They are noisy - which I can simply attribute to the goose behind alerting the goose ahead of it’s close proximity.
I can see where a mid-air collision among geese could not only be dangerous, causing injury and possibly death - it would mean a lot of wasted effort recovering both altitude and getting back to the flock.
I do not recall hearing these same ‘chatter’ at night. We would often see a large flock of Geese descend on one of our fields in the late evening - I mean, there were literally THOUSANDS of those noisy and delicious Canadian Honkers and Snow Geese (all white).
So, we would get up early in the morning - move quietly and slowly and crawl as close as we could - without alerting the flock to our presense - and wait for sunrise. The goal was that the geese would launch, circle the field to organize - and give us a good shot during this period - where we could each get a goose or two.
Unfortuantely, every single time we thought we were sitting pretty - some Hunting Retard would drive by - and fire on the flock from 200+ yrds away with a shotgun. Sometimes we felt his BB’s land in the grass around us - more times than not, the BB’s wouldn’t make it that far - but the noise travelled very well, thank you. This would cause the flock to immediately take off - in a direction that was always not favorable for us getting a shot off. I won’t shoot unless I have a shot that will kill (not wound - kill) a goose. So, more often than not - we just got some excitement and a good freeze for our efforts. You just can’t discount the Hunting Retards - their numbers are far too high to ignore.
Pity, there is no season or permits issued on that one.
LOL tell us what you really think! Actually, what I hate are grackles!
Terrorist birds. Just testing the air, so to speak... (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.