When I was lying in bed this morning contemplating the need to get up, I heard a some geese honking their way north, and realized that that wasn’t a sound I associate with spring. Is that confirmation bias – I hear the geese in the spring but ignore the sound in favor of the twitter of birds nesting in my yard – or is there a difference in the way that geese migrate (in size of flock or otherwise) between fall and spring?
At least around here I’d guess confirmation bias in that you’re likely to hear geese almost year round. As long as they can find open water to park in, geese will stick around. It’s not until the water starts really freezing over that they move on. Here in the Chicago area, I could probably (most years) find you a flock of Canada geese at Christmas time.
Canadian geese and Sandhill cranes are one of the first triggers that say spring in central Wisconsin. Soon afterward the singing frogs follow and mostly above freezing weather is here. There is one bird that when I hear it means the cranes and geese are about a month away, but I don’t know the name of it just the song.
Single geese don’t count. A small flock of 10 or so means spring.
In Canada Geese, the fall southward migration is more rapid and I believe more concentrated. The spring migration is more leisurely and more spread out. Maybe in your area you hear larger flocks passing through in a shorter amount of time in the fall than in the spring, and hence are more aware of the birds’ calling.