The Canada Goose Essay Research Paper The — страница 3

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flies at a much more graceful speed of forty-two to forty-five miles per hour during migration and can fly as fast as sixty miles per hour. Canada Geese always take off into the wind and usually fly at an altitude between one thousand and three thousand feet but in bad weather will fly as low as a couple hundred feet and when traveling over short distance they prefer walking because it uses less energy (Breen). When in flying in flocks Canada Geese fly in their trademark “V” formation, this formation is created because each goose flies behind and to the side of the goose in front of it allows them to take advantage of the slipstream created, this technique is known to automobile racers as drafting and it lets the Canada Goose fly seventy-one percent further than just going by

itself (Breen). Another skill Canada Geese use to land in heavy wind is wiffeling, to do this the goose turns its body sideways so that it’s wings are perpendicular to the ground, the bird loses it’s left and basically falls out of the sky, this technique is known to glider pilots as side slipping because you slip out of the sky (Breen). Most people believe that the migration north and the migration south are the same but actually they are different (Breen). The migration north to the breeding grounds is a slower and more relaxed one than that of the one moving south (Wormer). The migration north sometimes begins in late January for Canada Geese that are wintering far south, but the majority of movement occurs in March (Resource Reader). The female chooses the breeding

grounds and nesting site, the breeding grounds are those of which she was hatched (Breen). Ideal breeding grounds have the following characteristics: Browsing area for prior to nesting season, firm foundations, excellent visibility in all directions, isolated, brooding area of open water, aquatic feeding area, cover of emergent plants for protection during molting, and a browsing area for brood after they learn to fly (Wormer). Some areas with these characteristics are: swamps, marshes, meadows, rivers, lakes, ponds, islands, Tundra and coastal plain (Wormer). Preferred places to build the nest are small islets, muskrat houses, other birds abandoned or sometimes unabandoned nests, in the case where the nest is still occupied the female goose will incubate the other birds eggs as

well as her own. Canada Geese especially the Giant Canada will also use man made nests like washtubs, old tires and haystacks (Wormer). Nest size varies from four inches deep by ten inches wide to fifteen inches deep and forty-four inches wide (Wormer). After the female has chosen the breeding grounds, nesting site and built the nest the male guards while she incubates the eggs (Wormer). Canada Geese breed all over Canada and in ideal breeding areas there may be many geese per acre but some territories may be as much as thirty five acres (Wormer) (See maps 1 and 2 for breeding areas and densities of geese). The migration south to the wintering grounds is a much faster paced migration than the one north and done in much larger flocks (Breen). Each flock usually consists of a group

of families (Breen). October and mid-November is when the greatest numbers of Canada Geese can be seen moving south (Resource Reader). Popular wintering grounds have a good food supply, suitable resting grounds near a lake, river or resivoir, the body of water should be large and have low banks or shorelines for loafing and the climate should not be to cold (Wormer). It is often on the wintering grounds that the geese choose their mate whom they will pair with for life, unless one is killed (Obee). Some Canada Geese migrate as far as Mexico, others stop further north, some don’t migrate at all and some even migrate across the ocean to Japan (Ross) (Refer to maps 1 and 2 for wintering areas and densities of geese). Canada Geese like to feed mid-morning and just before sunset

leaving the mid-day for relaxing. Canada Geese graze cord grass, spike rush, naiad, glasswort, bullrush, salt grass, seepweed, Bermuda grass, golden dock, lycium, brome grass, wild barley, rabbit-foot grass, pepper grass, saltbush, cattail, alkali grass, and tansy mustard (Wormer). They will eat Ladino or Dutch white clover if it is mixed with other grasses that the goose normally eats, they will not eat alfalfa unless it is young and tender (Wormer). Canada Geese also feed on all human grown grains but their favorite of all foods is corn (Breen). The most popular foods are, corn which forty three percent of geese feed on, small grain fed on by twenty four percent of geese, twenty two percent feed on pasture, and soybeans accounts for the other nine percent (Breen). Apart from