I hear the squawking of geese or maybe ducks every morning a few minutes after sunrise. I sometimes hear them at dusk too.
Whats up with that? Were they asleep somewhere near by and start flying at sunrise? Is this still part of the migration or local birds?
They are moving between the area where they spent the night and feeding areas. Migration is long over.
(Of course, it would help if you specified your locality.)
Depends on where you live and what species they are.
I lived for years on a lake near St. Louis on/under the great Mississippi migratory flyway. Mississippi Flyway - Wikipedia
Among many other species we had flocks of resident Canada geese. The geese lived there year round.
And every morning they’d wake up, have a mass honk-fest, then take off to go get coffee at wherever their long-winded debate had eventually decided. They’d come back later in the morning, honking like mad the whole time.
Along about dusk there’d be a similar noisy debate on where to sleep for the night. Funny, but they always ended up agreeing on the island in the middle of the lake. Along around midnight they’d finally quit doing the “Good night Jane, good night Jimmy Sue, good night Fred” routine & settle down to sleep.
Until first light when it was time to do it all again. Birds have busy lives. And some species just like to talk about it a lot.
We have (I think) mallards in our area, which we occasionally hear quacking on their way past our windows. More frequently I see them feeding in our local concreted-in creek, but now that *Colibri mentions it, where do ducks spend the night? Presumably they live at one of the several lakes in the region, but then why do they bother flying to our ugly little wash?
I’ll post some pictures when I get them up on Flickr.
I need to setup a camera pointing to the sky. See if I could get any bird flying footage. The sun’s glare is probably too much for a simple security cam.
Thank you for the replies.
They may spend the night on open water where it is more difficult for predators to approach without being seen. Dabbling ducks like mallards feed in shallow water (like ponds and creeks) where they can reach the bottom without diving.
In Escondido Creek they can sometimes reach the bottom without getting their ankles wet. Here’s one pausing to shake the silt out of his beak.
And from nearby Dixon Lake, we have here some further waterfowl, but I’m not entirely sure that all those here afloat are ducks.
In the next and final picture, I especially like the redwinged blackbird that photobombed my shoot, though he didn’t come in as clear as I would have liked. Still it’s pretty good, what with the shadow and everything.
The little black fella in fact is not ducky, but rather is an American Coot. I’ve always liked their odd little feet.
This is accurate. The relatively large pond in a nearby park fills up with Canada Geese in the spring and fall migration, and has a few hanger-son all summer. The pond is empty during the day, but toward evening they fly in from all over making noise as they come in. During migration there must be thousands of them in there.
There’s a moderate low level of honking all night, which they spend on the pond. Even in a fairly strong wind, they sleep on the water. Then, in the morning you hear them loudly - I image they are daring each other, “you go first”, “no, you!” They depart in large flocks to find farmers’ fields out of town where they glean for leftovers.
Sometimes they spill off onto the banks, but as someone walks by, particularly with a dog, you see them edge away leaving plenty of safe distance between themselves and the threat.
In the early summer you can se Canada geese leading their chicks around in single file. One Item I read said that Canada Geese lose their flying feathers during this time so they can’t fly away and leave their young. Fortunately, they eat grass so food is less of a problem… other than the green turds all over the park paths.
