Yesterday, I took a friend birding and saw/video taped the most amazing behavior I have ever seen. This is probably common (evolved over tens of thousands of years), but I was in awe to watch it and have only heard about the communication which takes place in flight with geese flying in V-formation. But what about the communication that takes place upon liftoff??? This is what we observed:
Huge flotilla in blob formation seen from Upper Taughannok on the way down the hill. I estimate hundreds of thousands of white bobbing floating objects around 3:00 pm yesterday, Sunday. From the Taughannok marina, we still could not make out if they were Snow Geese, but we did notice that they went from being a blob to a straight line and tried to estimate the length of the line and maybe count them. The line was about 2/3 the width of the lake from west to east shore. We tried to get closer and even at Barton Camp still could not tell if they were geese or not with binoculars. When we went down a beach road (forgot to note the name, the one after the red barn), the raft was gone. However, there was a smaller raft of about ten thousand SNOW GEESE about 15 yards from the shore. There I got to see my first BLUE GEESE, about 10-20 in the mix. During this time there were a few moments when there was a very loud outburst of cackling and then they all started to cackle/honk. It seemed like a unique bark, and this happened twice within about five minutes. Now that I think back, I think they were being signaled to do the next thing: They started to "drift" out to the middle of the lake. I thought we might have scared them, but a dozen others stayed behind and close to the shore. As the larger mass drifted, and they were probably paddling as there was little wind, the blob became smaller in circumference and more dense, then it became almost linear, then I noticed all of the geese began to face north, every one of them! Then they all turned and faced east, every one of them!!! The line becoming straighter and straighter in the course of about 30 minutes. Then there was almost a hush, and suddenly I heard one take off as if it was there was a "start gun." Then the next one and the next one. It was all instantaneous that they took off eastward together, then correcting for north, but it was truly a domino effect where they were so interconnected, they could sense each other and the nanosecond between each one. The orderliness of this massive take off was most awesome and magical. I couldn't help myself, I was screaming with awe and jumping up and down. I don't know if Youtube would allow me to post that video as there are a lot of expletives in there! As if that wasn't enough, the almost exact same sequence of events happened about 100 yards south as the CANADIAN GEESE had landed in a blob but then started to line up, everyone of them faced north, and I predicted that they were getting ready to take off as well. Then sure enough, they did! Flying north. And if THAT wasn't enough, we then saw an even bigger swarm of SNOW GEESE fly in about ten miles south, possibly around Taughannok Park between 4:30 and 5:00 pm. Looking south, it looked like it was snowing over Stewart Park as they came in to land. They landed like a huge flotilla, floated for about ten minutes, then lined up from west to east, in what appeared to be a perfectly straight line with heads all facing north. I predicted again they were about to take off and fly north, and then they did. It was spectacular to watch from a distance and then overhead as they passed!!! Has anyone else seen this behavior before? -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
