Large impoundment geese

[Grizzly1775]

Do geese on the larger impoundments tend to key in on any specific food types? Bedsides people throwing bread at the county park, just wondering what they might be eating on ga power/ACE lakes. Have y’all cut open a crop or gizzard and found anything interesting?

 

[Duckbuster82]

They eat new growth off the banks, acorns, some grasses and inverts in the water. But most will be loafing or roosting on big water and feeding in fields.

 

[GeorgiaGlockMan]

I had army worms on a planted food plot. Geese were there loading up 3x a day. Back and forth from my place to another with water. Honking till kingdom come.

 

[Grizzly1775]

Thank y’all for the info. Hadn’t seen much ag right near the lakes, didn’t really know how far they would travel to feed or if they just stayed on the lake full time.

 

[GTMODawg]

Thank y’all for the info. Hadn’t seen much ag right near the lakes, didn’t really know how far they would travel to feed or if they just stayed on the lake full time.

That's a good question. I have followed geese 50 miles from a roost to a feeding field. I have also stopped at 50 when the birds looked like they were going to keep going all morning. Ain't no rhyme or reason to it....they would fly over perfectly good fields full of food and other birds. I lived 70 miles from a large refuge a few years back, directly under a flight path that would lead them to vast acreage planted in corn and wheat and hay. There'd be thousands of Canadas and 10s of thousands of Snows and cranes flying over the house around 9 each morning. Beautiful site. There were 2 sizeable lakes in the area and they would loaf during the day on those but fly back to the refuge just after feeding in the evening....very few roosted on those lakes. Strange critters....I would have stayed closer to the dinner table LOL....


Those lakes also held incredible numbers of ducks...and good ducks...Mallards, Pintail, Canvasback and teal, gadwall, and shovelers in staggering numbers. They would all pitch into the dead center of both lakes and loaf ALL day and then fly back to the refuge after dark...I have seen 10000 ducks leave those lakes within 10 minutes of one another, never coming close to anything that could be used for a blind.

If there is a golf course around they don't need agriculture they just need to be able to dodge drives and irate golfers. Cow pastures and hay fields will also serve their purpose as well as ball parks and anywhere there is grass and room to land. They are very opportunistic....in the PNW it isn't unusual for them to land in the interstate median and feed as if nothing at all unusual is going on....

 

[WOODIE13]

We always had good luck hunting them close to a food source or shallow water with a sand bar or rocks, just tough to hide