Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Canada Geese

(Recording of Canada Geese)

There’s not many sights more thrilling than that of a wedge of Canada Geese migrating overhead. Right now large flocks are passing over Duluth every day, on their way from their nesting grounds on the tundra down to the central and southern United States for the winter. The V-shape that the geese fly in helps them to conserve energy–it makes them more aerodynamic. The leader slices into the air, like the prow of a boat, and the others follow in the line of his wake, where the air resistance is least. But the leader gets tired after just a few minutes and switches places with another one in the flock. If you watch a flock of geese passing, it’s usually easy to see the wedge regroup at least once while they are in your field of view.

The migrating flocks are mostly made up of related clans of birds. Geese form strong family bonds–mates remain together for life, and the young seldom settle far away from their parents–sort of like a neo- conservative’s ideal for American life.

Most of the geese winter in fairly wild areas, but some have figured out that parks and zoos are safer. A flock that winters in the Madison, Wisconsin, zoo’s waterfowl enclosure includes birds that were banded up around Hudson Bay. They take handouts from people all winter, and then breed in tundra wilderness–they have the best of both worlds.

Eden Prairie, Minnesota, has a goose problem which made the news recently. The fairway at one of its local golf courses is overpopulated with a gaggle of geese, and so the city asked the Minnesota DNR to call open season. Members of the country club would be allowed to shoot on the fairway in what the DNR called a goose season. But a few sportsmen and a lot of non-hunters objected–it hardly seemed sporting to shoot at tame birds. Geese have flourished in Eden Prairie for generations, adapting to nine irons instead of shotguns. Fortunately, because of the huge public opposition, the city and DNR backed down.

Invariably it’s people who bring goose problems upon themselves. The geese that summer in the Duluth harbor, like the Eden Prairie birds, are actually very far south of their natural breeding range. These flocks usually begin with one or two injured or domesticated geese. The prisoners call to migrating flocks, and invariably some geese descend for a visit. Many a goose’s long-term meaningful relationship has sprung up between a grounded bird and a wild one. Geese are endowed with more loyalty than wanderlust, so a wild bird will stick by its new partner permanently–even if it means giving up the wilderness forever. And some of their young will stay, too. Of such small romantic beginnings are immense goose problems eventually forged.

Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions. Huge urban populations, with no natural predators to thin them out, often become victims of disease. And with the inbreeding that takes place in stationary flocks, genetic weaknesses develop over time, too. But although I’m not much of an anti-hunter, I do think that goose hunting, even under the most sporting of conditions, is the saddest hunting of all–every goose is mourned by its own.

(Recording of a Canada Goose)

This is Laura Erickson, and this program has been “For the Birds.”