Saw a cool new goose behavior yesterday

Cody Williams

Cody Williams

Well-known member
Yesterday afternoon I snuck out to a local river to do some jump shooting and set a few decoys out till dark. The river is mostly frozen with some small holes on the bends. As I was rounding a bend to put a sneak on a small hole that was hidden by an island, I flushed a group of Goldeneyes from the open water behind the island. When they took off I heard a goose honk from the hole also, and as I ran around the bend to try to nail it before it took off I saw something I'd never seen before-the goose had swam up to the edge of the ice, and then laid its head down and grabbed the ice with its bill to try to keep a low profile! I've seen geese lay down like this in the spring and they're nesting, but I've never seen one do it on the water, much less bite the ice to stay in place in the current. I waited about 30 seconds for it to flush but it refused to move, so I ended up groundpounding it. Has anyone else seen a goose do this? After I set up the decoys I had a merganser decoy in and got to watch him swim around for about 15 minutes, that was pretty neat too.
 
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interesting behavior... but next time take a shot in the air, yell at the bird, etc. and take him in the air. It's just my opinion, but it's more sporting that way rather than shooting them in the water.
 
It could very well be that he was injured, and knowing he was unable to fly, took to deception to try and evade you. Just like some geese and ducks when not fatally hit will go very still when approached.
 
Good point Paul, if the bird was wounded I have no problem with shooting the bird on the water.
 
I was wondering also if he might be injured, but he didn't have any broken bones or older shot wounds. I was thinking that maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that I shot him on the water, but a late season goose in range is a gift around here and I gave him plenty of opportunity to flush. Which is more sporting if you're intent on harvesting a goose-taking a sure shot on the water, on a possibly injured bird, or "sportingly" forcing him to fly, and then possibly only wounding him and watching him fly into the next county to die slowly? Or if he was wounded and unable to fly, is it more "sporting" to leave him in the hole and let him suffer until he either freezes to death or dies of his wounds? If he flushes, how far does he have to fly for it to be considered "sporting" range? Is 10 feet above the water ethically superior to 20 yards?
I have had plenty of opportunities to swat ducks and geese on the water, and 9 times out of 10 it's a shot I don't take. This was an exception. My main point is that I saw what I thought was an interesting behavior, and I wanted to share that. I'm sorry if anyone is offended at the shot I took, but I'm a hunter and to me being an ethical hunter means taking the best available shot that gives you a chance to cleanly make a kill.
 
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I have shot birds on the water. I like shooting flying birds. A decoying bird is easier to kill.(open wings and vitals) Nothing like a long stalk jump shoot though. John
 
Cody most of my best shots were on the water and ended on the wall for mounts and I'm just as proud of them. i often like watching birds land and see how they interact to the decoys then pick the bird i like and ...well lets just say i never had a bird get away when it was in the water already. But to those who think its unsporting to shoot in the water my hunts are judged on how many i can get in the decoys most of the times i let them fly away after a nice swim its not only about the bag limit
 
I see geese do that alot when crippled. I have seen them grab onto grass on the side of the river, not ice. They get that head down and think they have dissapeared. I doubt he would (could) have flushed.
 
I have also heard of wounded ducks swimming down and grabbing vegetation on the bottom, but have never seen it personally. Also I've seen crippled ducks swimming like a submarine with just the tip of their bill above the water, earlier this season I chased a wounded gadwall around a slough (I didn't wound it, it swam out of some cattails as I was walking by) for at least an hour because he was using this technique, which makes it nearly impossible to shoot them. Waterfowl never cease to amaze me with some of their behaviors.
 
Cody,
I had just winged this drake widgeon in the low flow channel and was lucky enough to take this picture as Chili was trying to locate it. She was about 20 feet downstream from it. This widgeon was swimming about eight inches under water and upstream. You can see just a tip of its left wing above the water. It was amazing!
Al

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Cody,
I had just winged this drake widgeon in the low flow channel and was lucky enough to take this picture as Chili was trying to locate it. She was about 20 feet downstream from it. This widgeon was swimming about eight inches under water and upstream. You can see just a tip of its left wing above the water. It was amazing!
Al

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Stealth Duck...
 
Wow, that's really an amazing shot Al! Really incredible behavior especially from a puddle duck, I'd expect to see that from a diver but from a puddler that's another story. I have seen seabirds and penguins "fly" underwater, which is a beautiful sight. Earlier this season I had a wounded teal disappear from right under my dog's nose in about a foot of water, this photo explains what may have happened there. I'm glad to hear that you were able to recover your bird.
 
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In my opinion the most important aspects of taking waterfowl are first to do it as humanly as possible and second to utilize the bird appropriately. How you legally harvest the bird is a personal preference and I do not believe it is my position to a judge hunter's decision to shoot on the water or in the air. I prefer to shoot flying birds but ever since I met a boy in Newfoundland years ago who hunted and fished for sustenance, I have respected others preferences. He would wait for geese or ducks to line up so he could kill his birds with one shot. His dad had a punt gun that he shot once a year to kill his ducks for the year. Right or wrong, they ate every duck. That in contrast to the wasteful disrespect I've seen with hunters here in the US and especially on Walpole Island.
Just my opinion.
 
I've seen ducks swim under water like a fish before, as well as geese!
One year, I was Pheasant hunting along the Big Sioux River in Iowa and saw a Canada goose standing on the ice next to open water. It was the day after the season closed, so I had no chance at shooting the goose. The goose saw me and swam under the ice! I thought, it was a goner, but it surfaced again in another open hole. The goose kept this up until it eventually went into an undercut in the bank. It was most likely a beaver den. I suspect that the goose had a broken wing, since it was alone and never once tried to fly.
 
interesting behavior... but next time take a shot in the air, yell at the bird, etc. and take him in the air. It's just my opinion, but it's more sporting that way rather than shooting them in the water.

Just wondering, do you "flush" all game you shoot.......to make it more sporting?
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