Tornadoes and geese?

[Mike Hollingshead]

While putting together a small video from Wednesday I remembered the geese. I'm south of Ogallala watching the smaller tornado move north, to my southwest and the whole time very noisey geese are flying around. They'd let up a bit then they'd be honkin away again. I bet they were wondering what on Earth was going on. It got me thinking, I can't recall any tornado video with geese honking away in the background.

Anyone see this on video or in person? I'm sure there are some examples out there but I can't think of any and I've seen a lot of videos. I'm just thinking it should be rare, but not too rare. Will have the video online later.

[Mike Hollingshead]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzJnhTPExBc

Geese can clearly be heard at the end of that clip. Perhaps it's not all that interesting. It just seemed rather odd at the time.

[Wesley Luginbyhl]

I bet they are honkin because they are stuck in the inflow and are trying to find a way out. I can imagine the inflow on this storm was tremendous.

[Tim Johnson]

Maybe, some of the geese were not pulling completely over causing a dangerous geese convergence, thus all the honking lol (I know...lame! sorry, couldn't resist).

I'm sure they were wiggin out if that inflow was a strong as you say it was. What adds to the odd-ness, is that its dark! Don't most birds roost at dusk, or is that not the case with geese?

[sdienst]

I remember when tornadoes hit Wharton Co. TX pretty bad on Nov. 17, 2003. Millions of snow geese winter down here and I remember reading in the news how they found a few scattered along the road dead.
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/031117_rpts.html

[Brian Emfinger]

I was looking for something else and stumbled upon this but anyway I saw the exact same thing yesterday. We were right under the updraft base (it was going very linear/multicellular) and there were geese flying all around. They seemed very confused. They were several flocks flying in all different directions and merging and breaking apart. After a few minutes I remember thinking they might be riding the updraft? Seems like a plan to me... either take a chance on tornado but have easy flying or get pelted with hail...maybe they knew there was no chance of tornado?

http://www.realclearwx.com/geese.jpg

http://www.realclearwx.com/images/apr030711.jpg

[Shane Adams]

No honking, but I have video of geese flying near an RFD on March 30, 2006. Hard to judge distance sometimes, but they seemed way up there, like they could've been feeling some of the effects of it.

[Darin Brunin]

Mike, maybe you saw this on the comments section on your video on youtube?


At least 6 center pivot irrigation systems were destroyed as far as I know. And there are hundreds of dead snow geese in the fields. They were migrating back north.

[Dan Robinson]

During Hurricane Frances, it was amusing watching birds trying to take off and land in the wind. If they had their tails to the wind, they were flying so fast it was hilarious. I can't imagine what was going on in their heads when the landscape below them is rushing by *way* faster than it should be. If they were facing the wind, as soon as they left the ground, they were flying backwards!

Geese have large wingspans, and I can imagine it would be difficult for them to maneuver in 50mph+ inflow.