Weird Snow Geese Behaviour

conor_90

conor_90

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Duck hunting today in a creek, err slough that feeds into a large lake

A pair of snow geese were swimming around in the water. We shot 4 ducks over them and they never flushed, just swam away at a normal pace. We threw chunks of snow at them and they did not flush. We even shot a couple of other snow geese overhead, nothing.

What’s the deal with this? The slough was about 8 metres wide. Did they not have enough room to take off? I have heard with high rates of avian flu this year some waterfowl may be acting strangely, but besides not flushing their behaviour seemed very normal.

I was tempted to ground swat err water swat them but I was concerned about the flu. Am I out to lunch? What was wrong with these geese? The snows here are heavily pressured and very flighty.
 
I had a similar situation where I was walking along shore of a smaller inland lake and almost tripped over a duck. He didn't fly off, he kind of mozied out into the water and swam around in a 10' circle, looking like he was wanting me to leave. I backed up and hid behind some brush and he went right back to his spot on shore. Walked up to him again, same thing happened but he never attempted to fly. I believe this one had been shot, couldn't fly and felt safer on shore. Maybe like Spank said, they were both wounded, who knows.
 
Spank if you were in this situation would you have lit them up? Serious question, appreciate your posts a lot and know you’re an experienced waterfowl Hunter.

Definitely possible they were wounded. The surrounding fields are popular goose hunting spots and they come in real high.
 
I would have shot them. They were likely wounded and possibly incapable of continuing their migration. If thats the case, they’ll likely be dead sooner or later.

I’ve had this situation many times while on the lake. If I don’t already have my limit, I’ll kill the suffering bird. Years ago, I put down a goose that wouldn’t fly off. Found out I was right about it being wounded and its leg was a green rotten mess.
 
conor_90 said:
Spank if you were in this situation would you have lit them up? Serious question, appreciate your posts a lot and know you’re an experienced waterfowl Hunter.

Definitely possible they were wounded. The surrounding fields are popular goose hunting spots and they come in real high.
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Probably I'd have shot them. Not much fun in water swatting them but based on their behaviour I likely would have thought they were a wounded pair and dispatched them. I used to find alot of wounded birds when I owned a dog while walking into hunting locations or going to known regularly hunted locations and just letting the dog work shorelines and marshy spots. I went to a small newly flooded beaver pond full of green timber one sunday morning after a group of fellows I know had hunted the evening before and just walking the shoreline around the pond my dog picked up 13 woodies and mallards about half of which were still alive. That was two limits worth and back in the day when lead shot was still legal!
 
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Good to know.

I know I have wounded a few geese myself in this spot unfortunately. I have tried to avoid sky busting but even at close range I’m not an amazing shotgun shot.

We managed to flush a duck I had wounded earlier in the day several hours after the fact when my “ bird dog” (21 year old kid I’m in school with) went in to retrieve some other ducks. Was a good feeling to be able to recover it. Definitely makes the case for owning an actual dog

Too bad, I would have been happy to put them out of their misery even if it meant I could only shoot 48 more geese with my single shot Henry :dancingbanana:
 
Yup definitely a pair of cripples, probably from a shotgun blast but Ive seen snows fall out of a big bunch that run into each other in flight when spooked.
Buddy of mine and i used to drive around the lakes we hunted looking for cripples to dispatch with .22's in the mid day lulls between morning & evening shoots.
They should be dispatched as quickly as possible because if not their last day of life will be frozen into a lake on a cold morning watching that coyote thats going to come over and kill it
 
fingers284 said:
Yup definitely a pair of cripples, probably from a shotgun blast but Ive seen snows fall out of a big bunch that run into each other in flight when spooked.
Buddy of mine and i used to drive around the lakes we hunted looking for cripples to dispatch with .22's in the mid day lulls between morning & evening shoots.
They should be dispatched as quickly as possible because if not their last day of life will be frozen into a lake on a cold morning watching that coyote thats going to come over and kill it
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You do realize wounded or not it is illegal to shoot waterfowl with a rifle or shotgun with a single projectile?!
 
Michael Hicks said:
They may be dying of bird flu. Seen some acting strangely here this spring.
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A friend of mine is a falconer. She is not hunting ducks this year with her Peregrine Falcon as a friend of hers put his on ducks two days back to back and two days after it made it's last kill it was dead from contracting Avian Flu from the ducks it killed. I was shocked it could kill his Falcon so quick but she said it is very common for birds of prey to die fast when they contract diseases from their prey. She is focusing on Huns this year with her Peregrine and only flying him in areas where waterfowl are not present in the immediate vicinity.
 
Any chance these birds were domestics that were mingling with the wild birds? I watched two guys shooting at a pair of geese on the water. Turned out they were not Speckle-bellies but a pair of barnyard pets that travelled a bit too far down the shoreline and were hanging out with the wild birds.
 
Duncan Idaho said:
Any chance these birds were domestics that were mingling with the wild birds? I watched two guys shooting at a pair of geese on the water. Turned out they were not Speckle-bellies but a pair of barnyard pets that travelled a bit too far down the shoreline and were hanging out with the wild birds.
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Hahaha! It's pretty sad if you cannot identify a domestic species from a wild one, especially on something like a Specklebelly (Greater White-Fronted Goose) but twice in my lifetime I've watched someone at a distance shoot a Swan thinking it was a Snow Goose.
 
the spank said:
A friend of mine is a falconer. She is not hunting ducks this year with her Peregrine Falcon as a friend of hers put his on ducks two days back to back and two days after it made it's last kill it was dead from contracting Avian Flu from the ducks it killed. I was shocked it could kill his Falcon so quick but she said it is very common for birds of prey to die fast when they contract diseases from their prey. She is focusing on Huns this year with her Peregrine and only flying him in areas where waterfowl are not present in the immediate vicinity.
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The dead and dying white geese here this spring were picked on by the many ravens in our area. Now there are very few ravens. We saw ravens dying from it. The flu is supposed to be still in the geese returning from the north and passing thru here this fall.
 
Bird flu forsure saw hundreds dead this spring, seen more this fall, ones alive but obviously infected were completely disoriented often with heads turned sideways doing circles. One area i came across was like somethin out of a horror movie. They call it bird flu but to me looked more like mad cow or somethin.
 
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They didn’t appear disoriented, besides not flushing and being on the water in early morning in a slough they appeared normal. Just moving up and down the slough. They did move away when the shooting started

Not domesticated geese lol.
 
those two were wounded or sick for sure. I'd have shot them, which is the best outcome for those geese. Not sure If I would have picked them up. A local turkey farm just broke with avian influenza, probably transmitted by geese. It's no joke. Transmissible to people under some circumstances. I still hunt wild geese, but I'm leery about handling any sick ones.
 
I did not want to shoot and leave them but was concerned about the flu, and potentially wounding them further on the water. Hard call to make. If it happens again I will shoot them. Unlikely I will get out there anyways with the damn price of gas, cost of returning to school and an Alberta deer hunt coming up on the budget.

Had a really good time the couple of times I’ve tried Saskatchewan duck hunting though. The first time there were literally thousands of ducks and geese high overhead. Second time had better luck/ shooting but less ducks. I hear the area has lots of cranes in November though so I may have to stick to ramen for a few weeks and try to get out there again
 
the spank said:
Hahaha! It's pretty sad if you cannot identify a domestic species from a wild one, especially on something like a Specklebelly (Greater White-Fronted Goose) but twice in my lifetime I've watched someone at a distance shoot a Swan thinking it was a Snow Goose.
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we have less geese than most of you and have alot of swans and sorry to say you to do it hard to think and take one for another ... and i hunted a lot of snow geese in quebec and they were so good to eat with a cassoulet ...
 
to say you to do it hard to think and take one for another ..
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Qu’est ce que #### Phil?

Parles-tu anglais?

:dancingbanana:

Loads of tundra swans where I was in northern BC. Alaska has a season, I was always curious
 
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