BIRD ARMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 May 1938, Page 9

BIRD ARMY

BIG FLIGHT OF GEESE TO CANADA.

ANNUAL AND FRIENDLY INVASION.

Manitoba has experienced its annual and friendly invasion of great armies of wild geese on their flight to their nesting grounds in the Arctic regions. The mighty bird army, which winters along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, becomes restive in the early half of March, lured by the age-old enticements of the higher latitudes of the north. At a favourable time in the latter part of the month the flocks take to the air and commence the long flight to Canada along the Mississippi flyway. Noisy advances and enforced halts mark the northward flight, as the weather may be fickle and backward, with belated snow storms, but finally, with the appearance of real spring, and very often on a strong south wind, the army of migrants sweeps into Manitoba by the hundreds of thousands. The average date of arrival is about the end of the first week of April, and a few days of ideal weather conditions are sufficient to bring the birds to the Manitoba feeding grounds in maximum numbers. This total is unknown and probably always will be, but is commonly referred to as running into the millions. Some of the greatest concentrations of geese occur within a few miles of Winnipeg, and prodigious numbers are to be seen in the lowlands about Grant’s Lake and near Rosser, Marquette, Grosse Isle and Woodlands.

Frequently tens of thousands of mixed snow and blue geese come together in a single locality, and at such times acres of ground are covered white as with drifted snow. "The spring-time halt in Manitoba lasts for about one month, during which period the geese feed and recuperate after the long fight from the Gulf of Mexico Then, depending on seasonal conditions, the flocks depart in late April or early May for the nesting grounds in the Arctic regions.

Few ornithological sights in North America savour more of the spectacular than this great spring flight of geese. Several species are involved in this mass migration to the north, but the most outstanding are the closely related lesser snow and blue geese. The Mantioba flight has likely taken place since time immemorial, but it is only within comparatively recent years that this mass movement through the province has become well known to naturalists.