Great observations Branta! Always noticed how the late season birds were always resting/sleeping in the fields. Went by one of my fields yesterday and there were about 300 birds in it (5 orange collars I could see). I would say 3/4 of the birds were sitting and feeding/resting with head tucked in. GHG decoys makes a great looking shell that is in the sleeping position. Will definitely invest in some of those for next year.
Goose photos
nothing spectacular in the photos below, but I thought I'd post them up anyways.
Anytime I can sit and observe birds and their behavior, I take advantage of it.
What started out as a small family group loafing in a day "rest" area, continued to grow as more and more birds filtered in. Not really surprising, more like real life "confirmation" but they almost immediately (within a second) had tucked in and began to preen or caught a nap.
Late season rigs for should have a large number of shell dekes in sleeping/contented poses. Minimal amount of sentries standing up.
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When new birds arrive, the ol ganders would face downwind and sound off to the incoming birds. - still limited vocalizations though. and if the landed too close, they were quickly chased out.
but also note how "tight" the rig is, but still keeping some distance (family groups within a larger flock/rig)
someone here mentioned earlier about "white rings" on a Canada- here's another shot to show you how fairly common this trait is in B.C. Maxima's (local giants)
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more birds coming in
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and of course... the "bling, bling"
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For those "band hungry" out there, if you can, start observing geese in the off season and start "training" your eye to quickly pick up little clues (extra knuckle, a glint, or a gum wrapper look-looks white to me in the field) . Next season when you have geese in the fully committed/final approach, give yourself that extra 1-2 seconds before calling the shot by waiting for that gear to come down. it is almost amazing how easy it is to see the band when you've trained yourself to look for the inconsistency and when they're back peddling with the gear out. (I have video of a banded bird coming into our rig at FP - saw it and zoomed right over to that bird - called it out for my dad to shoot .)
Anytime I can sit and observe birds and their behavior, I take advantage of it.
What started out as a small family group loafing in a day "rest" area, continued to grow as more and more birds filtered in. Not really surprising, more like real life "confirmation" but they almost immediately (within a second) had tucked in and began to preen or caught a nap.
Late season rigs for should have a large number of shell dekes in sleeping/contented poses. Minimal amount of sentries standing up.
When new birds arrive, the ol ganders would face downwind and sound off to the incoming birds. - still limited vocalizations though. and if the landed too close, they were quickly chased out.
but also note how "tight" the rig is, but still keeping some distance (family groups within a larger flock/rig)
someone here mentioned earlier about "white rings" on a Canada- here's another shot to show you how fairly common this trait is in B.C. Maxima's (local giants)
more birds coming in
and of course... the "bling, bling"
For those "band hungry" out there, if you can, start observing geese in the off season and start "training" your eye to quickly pick up little clues (extra knuckle, a glint, or a gum wrapper look-looks white to me in the field) . Next season when you have geese in the fully committed/final approach, give yourself that extra 1-2 seconds before calling the shot by waiting for that gear to come down. it is almost amazing how easy it is to see the band when you've trained yourself to look for the inconsistency and when they're back peddling with the gear out. (I have video of a banded bird coming into our rig at FP - saw it and zoomed right over to that bird - called it out for my dad to shoot .)
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