Hi,
David Fix's very informative Oregon Birds article (Fix, D. 1988. Notes
for spring flyway for White-fronted Geese. Oregon Birds 14(3):243-246)
is available by scrolling down
http://www.orbirds.org/orbirdsfall1988.pdf
In the 1995 article in Oregon Birds cited below, Lincoln County,
spring northwest or westward goose migration across the Lincoln County
Coast Range was observed, with flocks arriving from the east being
observed at the coastline of the Siletz, Yaquina, and Alsea estuaries,
where the flocks changed direction and flew northward along the
coastline or northwestward. Not all followed the trajectory Darrel
described in his email of over his Thornton Creek house, to the mouth
of the Siletz Bay and then out over the ocean. In fall, flocks were
seen going in the opposite direction.
These trans-Coast Range flights can be so high that they may not be
seen: "On 2 May 1992, Lowe, who was about 2 miles from the coast on
the south side of Alsea Bay, saw a flock of about 550 White-front s
flying very high from east to west at 1040. He first detected them by
hearing their faint calls; even with binoculars, they were barely
visible, so these flocks could easily be missed."
Excerpts of our conclusions:
"Some geese cross the Lincoln County Coast Range during daylight in
spring and fall. But it is unclear how important these routes are
because our observations were opportunistic, not systematic. Further,
our observations were only during daylight, so we do not know how
many, if any, geese migrated across the Coast Range in darkness. ...
"Geese may migrate across the Coast Range to conserve energy. Geese
could save distance if they followed a Great Circle route between the
Klamath Basin area and the southwestern mainland of Alaska by flying
directly over the Coast Range rather than over the Willamette Valley
(e.g., Bellrose 1976:106,116). As a consequence of our observations,
it is important to recognize that flocks of geese migrating along the
Oregon coastline in spring may have already crossed the Coast Range
and flocks flying along the coastline in fall may yet cross the Coast
Range. Thus, without observing the flight routes of many flocks over
at least 50 miles, determining the relative importance of coastline,
trans-Coast Range, or Willamette Valley routes of goose migration is
conjecture. Another problem with determining the relative importance
of routes is that geese that cross the Coast Range may not all fly
along the coastline where they can be observed. For example, Terry
Thompson observed a flock of about 150 Canada Geese flying north 10
miles offshore of Three Arch Rocks (Tillamook County) on 26 April
1988."
"... Finally, it was our impression that Marys Peak may be an
important navigational landmark for geese migrating across central
Lincoln County. In spring, geese appeared to be coming from the
direction of Marys Peak towards Siletz or Yaquina Bays; in fall, this
direction was reversed."
Bayer, R. D., R. W. Lowe, and D. Faxon. 1995. Spring and fall
migration of geese across the Coast Range of Lincoln Co., Oregon.
Oregon Birds 21[1]:10-12. This is at
http://yaquina.info/ybn/bird/oregon-birds-1995-goose-migration.pdf or
scroll down to p. 10-12 at
http://www.orbirds.org/orbirdsspring1995.pdf
Range Bayer, Newport, Oregon
On Sun, Feb 21, 2016 at 4:52 PM, <5hats@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
From what I have been able to piece together over the years from my ownPOST: Send your post to obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
observations and those of others concerning the spring migration of
White-fronted Geese, it is fairly obvious that a certain amount of them
cross over the Cascades near Toketee on the upper Umpqua drainage (David
Fix). head north/northwest across the Willamette Valley and turn almost
directly northwest at Mary's Peak, which puts them on a straight line down
the Yaquina River drainage to about mp 20 on US Hwy 20, from thence directly
over my house, and on to near the mouth of the Siletz River at the south end
of Lincoln City, from whence they continue out to sea in the same direction,
presumably headed for their nesting grounds in Alaska. However, from the
reports I have been reading on OBOL for the past several springs, and from
the fact that some years they do not pass over my house, It is obvious that
different birds have different migration routes, and perhaps even the same
birds have different migration routes in different years. I suspect that
even though the corridor for spring migration of Sandhill Cranes is much
narrower, that the same principle is true. I would therefore suspect that
cranes over Eugene at noon does not necessarily translate to the same flock
over Albany an hour later... and so forth.
Darrel
