Geese and flocks

[Amoeba]

Can geese become separated from a flock for a year or more and then return to one (or a different one)?

The one that was living alone (we don't get geese here at all, except flying overhead but they never land) has disappeared over the winter, it had been living with swans for about two years. I don't know if it's flown to re-join other geese or if, maybe, it died in the cold. It was during that month of heavy snow it disappeared.

[Dogghound]

We get alot of mixed flocks here as well as single pink-feet, double or single beans and small groups of white fronts these often mix with greylags. I would assume they would go back to their own species and migrate to where they breed in the spring.

[Amoeba]

It didn't do that last year, so I thought it was staying for good, especially since it is the one and only goose we've ever had around here. That's why I asked, so that still applies? If it saw a flock flying overhead, might it have flown? Because I can almost guarantee there would not have been any other geese landing here, maybe a small chance but I have never seen any other geese.

I didn't find a body anywhere, do they usually float or do water birds normally sink when they die?

[Gill Catton]

Is this the domestic goose that you thought had bonded with a swan? Did you post a thread about it before?

If so I think most domestic birds don't really tend to migrate much (as I understand it migration is learnt from parent birds - so if they don't migrate - they're offspring are less likely to) - though they may move about a bit with Canada's as the move around when going into moult for example. But I don't think they are ever involved in the epic migrations that wild native birds such as pink feet or white-fronted geese exhibit twice a year.
Does this help?

[Amoeba]

I doubt it was domestic because nobody was caring for it, and I am certain it bonded with a swan pair. (I'm starting to get a feeling a lot of people don't believe me with this one )

I guess it helps a bit, but I found what you said a little confusing. There were no other geese, as I said, so if there were none, and if it hadn't learned how to migrate, where could it have gone?

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by Amoeba

I doubt it was domestic because nobody was caring for it, and I am certain it bonded with a swan pair. (I'm starting to get a feeling a lot of people don't believe me with this one )

I guess it helps a bit, but I found what you said a little confusing. There were no other geese, as I said, so if there were none, and if it hadn't learned how to migrate, where could it have gone?

Sorry I meant escaped domestic goose - a goose of domestic rather than wild origin.

And apologies for not being clear the crux of what I was on about is because its a domestic type goose it probably doesn't migrate. Certainly not like true wild geese do. I would suggest that it has probably just gone somewhere else and won't necessarily be back.- Perhaps the cold weather persuaded it to go elsewhere. Or perhaps yes it perished, or a fox got it.

[Amoeba]

Haha, thanks sorry if I insinuated the wrong thing. I've just had a lot of people tell me (not necessarily here) that I was talking a load of rubbish.

I do hope she found somewhere safer to stay. I know there was a big upset between her swan pair and the neighbouring swan pair and I have noticed one of the swans is missing also (I hadn't noticed before because I got the two pairs mixed up for a while, but yes I noticed now these are two new swans that have taken over the territory). Maybe she followed it to wherever it went.