It’s that time of year where I live, where the ducks and Canada Geese are seen gathering to migrate south for the winter.
The birds seem to fly in all directions in large flocks, and it’s not unusual to see hundreds of geese sitting around on local inland lakes, as if they are gathering at staging areas, waiting for something to serve as the signal for them to collectively take off on their southward trek.
After seeing this year after year, and noticing that it seems to have little to do with weather conditions (it occurs similarly in warm autumns and cold ones), I ask the teeming millions:
What is going on at these apparent staging areas? Are they waiting for a certain number? Do they recognize one another, and are waiting for certain geese? What prompts them to take off?
How do they determine the staging areas from which they begin migrating? As I said, it’s not uncommon to see them fly north, east and west as they prepare.
Is there any particular order to the V-shape they take on for migrating? Some “alpha bird” that takes the lead?
They fly in a V formation because there is a sweet spot slighty behind and to the sides, where flying requires less effort. The lead bird has to work harder than the others and I believe they take turns.
I don’t have all the answers, but as a hobbyist bird watcher, I’ll pitch in 2 cents…
(2) For some species, the staging areas are remembered from previous years’ migrations. (like, “hey, that pond had a good food supply and few predators…let’s go there again”). Also, the migration routes tend to converge the further south they go, so large gatherings become more common.
(3) They take turns as the lead bird in the v-formation (the front position is the most tiring) (aside - - cyclists do this too, but not in v-formation…in long races, the cyclists will take turns being in front allowing the others to “draft”…the pack can move faster than an individual this way. This happens elsewhere too…car races, lobster migrations, etc.)
Some interesting info acquired from a Most Unlikely Source:
I was flipping around one night (I’ll let you savor that image for a few more seconds before I tell you I was referring to my TV remote) and happened upon possibly the most inane TV show ever devised: America’s Funniest . . . Animals. God help me, I stopped to watch a bit.
One bit of home video (I wonder if they got the $10,000 prize?) showed a not uncommon sight in an American suburban backyard (it’s been a recurring situation for my sister for something like 5 years now), a pair of Mallards and their brood. This backyard had a swimming pool, and the video, shot through a patio door, showed the mother leading the ducklings down into the pool and teaching them to swim. There was a brief montage: the ducklings grew, and flew away.
Cut to the following Spring: they’ve come back! The video camera captures the returning duck family, who–surprise!–seem to have brought along a few friends. And now we see that those friends seem to have invited some friends, too. The camera continues to record as dozens, no hundreds of ducks fall out of the sky over this small suburban backyard; squint your eyes and it looks like a slow-motion tornado is descending over their swimming pool. Within minutes, the surface of the pool is blanketed, without any space between ducks, and more ducks are landing on the patio and trying to shoulder their way onto the water. There are ducks on the lawn, ducks on the patio, ducks on the patio furniture.
So I guess from this we can gather two things: ducks aren’t averse to sharing a good thing with their friends, and ducks don’t have very good party judgment.
