We have seen several skeins of them W and TH coming down the coast and continuing on S from Sea Ranch
Diane Hichwa
Email: <dhichwa...>
Telephone: 707-785-1922 (Sea Ranch)
707-483-3130 (cell)
More Tail Wagging!!! Less Barking!!
Millie 2007
From: <Mendobirds...> on behalf of "Doug Forsell via groups.io" <djforsell...>
Reply-To: Doug Forsell <djforsell...>
Date: Thursday, October 9, 2025 at 10:22 PM
To: "<gallo.ja...>" <gallo.ja...>
Cc: "<tbray...>" <tbray...>, "<mendobirds...>" <mendobirds...>
Subject: Re: [Mendobirds] Aleutian Cacklers
Resent-From: Doug Forsell <djforsell...>
Resent-Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2025 22:22:16 -0700
I saw a couple of flocks flying south on Wednesday south of Point Arena.
I am unaware of anyone who has put geolocator or GPS devices on Aleutian geese, but I suspect that like most waterfowl, shorebirds, and other waterbirds coming from the Bering Sea and the Aleutians, they cut across the Gulf on the leading edge of low pressure systems.
I've attached a couple graphics from my migration talk that illustrate the migration route of Brant. The first graphic is a map showing that the Aleutian geese are coming from a latitude of about 52 degrees north, about equal to southern British Columbia, so it would not be advantageous to fly 600 miles north to follow the coast to the south.
The second slide shows the migration of Brant geese that breed from the Yukon Delta to Arctic Canada. They pile into Nelson and Isenbeck Lagoons on the Alaska Peninsula to fatten up for migration. After feeding on the abundant eel grass, they leave on the front of a low pressure system so they can get a good tail wind and end up in Mexico 36 hours later.
I assume the Aleutian geese are using a similar strategy, except doing essentially an ESE migration, hitting the coast and then flying north or south to find a foraging area. Some of the Aleutian geese winter in Oregon, but I think most still winter in the Central Valley south of Sacramento, but I haven't looked into it for many years to see how it might have changed.
