Understanding Geese
By T.R. Michels, Trinity Mountain Outdoors

Shortly after I began guiding goose hunts I met Dr. Jim Cooper, one of the most highly respected waterfowl researchers in the world. When I met him he was an Associate Professor of Wildlife with the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at the University of Minnesota, and he had been studying Canada Geese for over twenty-five years. The first time we met I told him I wanted to pick his brain about the calling, feeding habits, reaction to weather, habitat, family behavior, flock makeup and migration patterns of geese. After talking to Jim, and reading the results of his studies, it became apparent to me how important the family behavior of the flock is in understanding geese. Once I began to understand what the role of the family is in the flock, it changed the way I hunt geese.
Goose Social Structure
Geese traditionally mate for life. In the winter, geese congregate in large flocks consisting of several groups or subflocks. When the geese migrate north in the spring the subflocks, consisting of several families, stay together and the young return to the same body of water where they learned to fly. If there is available habitat young female geese will nest in the same area where they were raised. The result of this is that the flock in that area is related through the female side of the family. They stay together throughout the year and recognize each other by sight and sound. In the fall groups of families from nearby areas often band together to form the subflocks. If there are several subflocks together at one site, the individual subflocks remain apart from each other. Although subflocks may be made up of hundreds of geese, the families within the subflocks remain together, and the individuals within each family remain in close contact with each other. On the ground each family of from two to twelve or more birds requires its own space, apart from the other families. In the air the geese fly in family groups.
Food Preferences
Geese are primarily grazers. They eat succulent greens likes sedges, grasses and forbes (wild flowers) when they are available. Even when there is abundant corn I have seen geese eating grass on city parks and golf courses while most of the ground was covered with snow. If you can find a green field of grass, alfalfa or clover it is one of the best places to decoy geese. Geese also eat the leaves and seeds of small grains like oats, barley and wheat. They will also eat the new green sprouts of sugar beets, and leftover sugar beets. In the fall Canada geese seem to prefer oat and barley fields over wheat fields. After forbes, sedges, grasses and small grains have lost their chlorophyll in the fall geese will also eat larger grains like corn and soybeans.
Feeding Habits and Resting Periods
Geese generally fly out to feed twice a day, once within an hour of daylight, and again within an hour of sunset. When they are done feeding geese may fly back to their nighttime roost to rest during they