• Wednesday-What'sUP April 24 - 04:56 pm

Between Baraga and L'Anse, in Keweenaw Bay, the ice is beginning to break apart and open water is slowly taking its place, much to the happiness of the geese that are hanging around the bay. Donna MacIntosh was recently there to check out the ice situation and to see what the geese are up to there. She found a number of them in and out of the water and some of them were noisier than others. Check out the one in her third photo with his neck outstretched... Donna said he was hollering loudly and making quite a ruckus.

The goose in the bottom photo has a band around its right ankle and that started me wondering as to what the band is for and what it tells the folks who band them. From what I found about it on the Internet, it is a way to identify individual birds, but also tells about their flight paths and even the birds history. Some leg bands have reward amounts on them, to give hunters an incentive to report the harvest of a banded goose. Geese can also be banded around the neck, which can be easily read from a distance. The only way the leg bands can be read, is if they are recaptured or when they're harvested during a hunt.

If you'd like to read more about it, check out the following link: Goose Banding Facts.

What a welcome sight! I saw some the other day out here and was so excited! Not as excited as I was to see my 1st robin, though! The red winged blackbirds have been putting in quite a few appearances, too!!

Harvested on in the mid south area years ago that had THREE bands (different types, one clipped in the wing), indicating she was eight years old, returned each year to the Kellogg Refuge in Michigan where she was born.

I love geese!!
The pix today put me in mind of the movie "Fly Away Home", starring Michigan native, Jeff Daniels. Very good and touching movie based on a true story about training geese to follow a home-made flying 'machine', helping in their migration.

Photo #3 brings Led Zeppelin to mind: "When I done quit hollerin' baby, I believe I'll shake 'em on down" :-)

They were loud...It is so great to see them again!

We have Canadian Geese here as well...They are mostly down at the Sea Shore feeding and "honking" :)

Springtime is here we hope.

PT BT US =+=

Don't think they're 'born', they're hatched, 'eh? Those Gruse Canadensis. (spelling?)
Saw two flocks of them on my walk tonight. There were about 100 of them in one V. So nice to see the Goldfinches sporting their summer colors again. Most of the snow is gone here in Cornell.
The ditches are full of melted snow on its way to the swamps and creeks.