Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management Where do geese go when water freezes over?

My pond has been iced over for weeks now and one benefit is no geese. But I see them all over so they haven't flown further south to find open water. Are they spending nights in trees? In wide open fields?

Same here, everything has been froze over for a good while. I wondered where they might be getting to water. I do know they have been landing in our fields rummaging for corn that has been harvested, and they do stay for long periods. I wonder if geese can eat snow for water? Perhaps they get to a few open flowing streams and rivers.

Around here they find open water wherever they can. But I'm close to the Chesapeake and its tributaries the salinity makes some areas hard to freeze over.

But geese do not roost in trees, and they do not spend the night in the fields around here.

Resident geese in southeast PA are not native. They are a very large subspecies of Canada goose native to the western part of the country. However, they were captive bred and since been introduced all over N. America, to include PA where they are resident. Adult birds can weigh over 20 pounds.

Our native Canada geese are much smaller, with a max size of about 10 pounds here in the east. In a mild winter, they may over winter in far southeastern PA, but most spend their winters on the Delmarva Peninsula along the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Since much of the natural winter habitat has been destroyed, they are very reliant on waste grain in crop fields now. In very harsh winters, they may even migrate further south so areas like Back Bay or even into the Carolinas.

The overly large non native resident geese will seek out open water if available. However, with the extended cold southeast PA has had, that is pretty much gone. My experience with goose hunting in southeast PA and having family that lives next to several large lakes in the area and ag fields is the geese stay on the ice over night if open water is not available. However, my uncle said that Blue Marsh Lake for some reason has areas of open water where the resident geese seem to be "flocking" to. Why areas of the lake stay open, I have no clue. 100 yards away, guys are ice fishing on 16" of ice...

Travis, the geese move about in the water and their movement will keep the water open. They do that on purpose to keep the water open.

Cracks me up seeing them standing on one leg on the the edge of the ice...Sleeping!

I'm fairly close to the mouth of the Chesapeake so I am sure they go there. I saw massive flocks of snow geese and Canadian geese flying over my house today. They spent a lot of time in my neighbor's field and then at dusk flew in the direction of the bay.

The migratory native geese will. They are easy to tell apart as they are less than half the size of the resident non native geese which rarely travel more than 10 miles. The September goose season we have is to kill the resident geese. The later season is focused on both.

These are the big fat resident geese in my pond. They are leaving their mess all over certain areas of the shore. I told the old farmer we need to get rid of some of them and he said I have to talk to his wife about that. I told him if you cook them just right they are very good sort of like roast beef. He said he has had geese before and they were very good.



I have until Sept 1st to somehow talk the farmers wife into blasting the crap out of those geese. I mean "harvesting" them

A goose poops every 10 minutes. One goose will poop 1 pound every day. Geese could transmit swimmers itch to the pond.

I still think I had geese bring Eurasian Water Milfoil to my pond in seeds that they pooped out.

I'll second the 'swimming to keep the water open' thought...ever since we had a slight thaw a week or so ago that opened up a section of the big pond I've had about 30 geese in that hole. It was -3 here last night and the patch of open water is still there as of this morning...apparently they paddled around all night keeping it from freezing over.

They've gotta go. ASAP.

Your geese need diapers ;-)

I guess it is an advantage of having a smaller pond near a much larger one that someone else owns across the road. The geese pass over my pond once they see that 2-acre toilet over there. I'm not certain, but having almost no significant mowed area near the pond apart from an 8' wide strip leaves them on-edge with all of the fox and 'yotes around here and move on.

Dale what kind of Geese? snow geese are in season right now and just starting to get back here on there migration north. I can help get rid of them.

MSC, beautiful pond and landscaping!!! .