HONKIN' BIG WATERFOWL

Canadian Goose mate for life, will choose another if widowed.

Baffin Island, Northeast of Hudson Bay
Snow Goose and blue goose

Old Trunks hoped to see large groups of Canadian geese flying in flocks this weekend. We saw pairs of geese flying or sitting on the ice OR small groups near the restaurant where we had lunch. About the time of fish opener in Minnesota, the shore line near the restaurant will have numerous pairs; later, the will have their babies swimming and picking at the grass. Tom states they have already migrated and the pairs we saw were staking their claim.

Let's look back at an old newspaper, written about this time of year regarding migration of geese, shall we? When the article was written, blue geese and snow geese were considered separate species; today, the blue and snow are considered the same. Since we are using the newspaper as a source, we will leave the article in tact, that is, consider the blue and the snow separate species.

EXCERPTS FROM THE STEPHEN, MN NEWSPAPER:

Spring rode into Minnesota over the weekend on the thundering wings of blue geese as they reenacted an age old migration spectacle that has baffled scientist from earliest days.

Like a hug cloud, the birds, representing all the blue geese in America according to scientists, move up the historic Big Stone Lake Traverse flyway today northward toward Baffin Island in the Arctic Circle. It is one of the largest on record, this year, delayed by cold weather. It is said that after the advance cordons, hundreds of thousands moved unto the lake.

Thousands of snow geese and numerous Canadian honkers interspersed the blues. Observers pointed out that while the blue goose flight is concentrated, the snow geese trickle through for a month or more.

Fantastic to many is the story of the snow geese. So concerted is its migration, the University of Minnesota has pointed out, that all the blue geese in the United States fly northward through western Minnesota in a few hugs flocks each spring.

Their destination is Baffin Island in the Arctic Circle--a nesting place only discovered in 1928. In the fall they move southward over two routes--the oceanic Atlantic flyway and the Midwest and Mississippi River lane.

Hundreds of sportsmen and nature lovers visit the Traverse and Big Stone Lakes to witness the flight. So rapid and spectacular is the migration that frequently a quiet lake, still tinged with winter, is transformed into an amphitheater of wild life within a single day.

When in Kansas, when the honkers came through, we would take the children out to the pond between Lawrence and Eudora. It was the biggest concentration they would see as children. Recently, I went through all the pictures taken in the last 10 years, I must be just as enthralled has the children were, there are lots of pictures. And yes, they all look the same!

Honkin' big water fowl!

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