Last week I observed a flock of geese going on a trip. Is there a project that tracks migrating birds and could possibly link my observation with others of the same flock?
We have a US gov-run website where you can report a banded bird if you see one and are able to record the band number safely. This allows researchers to track individuals during migration. Some birds are equipped by GPS location devices that allows migration tracking in real time. I think it would be very difficult to link your observation to any specific flock or individual, as you havenât provided anything that would identify this specific group. This is especially true in the US where Canada Geese are extremely common.
Not for you, necessarily Phma, but If anyone in Florida (or elsewhere) ever sees a flamingo with a band, they can report it to FlamencoLab which monitors these. I think you receive a certificate of your sighting (here you do).
Have you searched for projects?
Play around with your search terms in the search window and click the âprojectsâ tab.
There are specific projects for migrations, geese, waterfowl, waterfowl migrations (one of the latter is specifically looking for lost/disoriented birds), etc.
Look, there is even one for Canada Geese specifically!
I know these are supposed to be quite aggressive birds but they are lovely to look at.
(From here, where there are none.)
Iâve never found them to be anymore aggressive than domestic geese and swans. Often less so.
They are much prettier than either in my opinion.
I think itâs worth noting that when people encounter aggressive Canada Geese defending nests or young, they are often non-migratory urban breeders who are descended from reintroduced birds who werenât taught how to migrate: How Canada geese and their poop became an urban wildlife management challenge | The Independent
The geese we see migrating over in flocks are more likely to have nested in remote wetlands, stopping over in agricultural fields while migrating and generally not interacting with people other than hunters who go out of their way to find them.
A lot of their âaggressiveâ behavior is defensive. Our gait looks aggressive to them, with our very upright body and our swinging arms (think a cartoon character doing the âput up yer dukes!â pose before a fight), and they sometimes respond accordingly. Particularly if they have babies to protect. The ones at parks often have experience with kids chasing them around, and they donât know the kids arenât trying to eat them, so they have extra reason to think of humans as a threat.
That goes for geese in general, not just Canada geese. Mostly theyâre responding to a perceived threat.
(I did have a feral goose I caught as a kid later walk up behind me and bite me on the rear, which doesnât strike me as a defensive thing quite so much, but yâknow what thatâs fair enough.)
Are you sure they were migrating? Canada geese move around in flocks. Some migrate. Others donât.