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After goslings hatch in the spring, the adults molt their feathers during the summer, becoming flightless for a brief time (NYSDEC, 2007).

A pair of geese will construct a nest and tend to a clutch of five or six eggs for close to one month (NYSDEC, 2007). The breeding season for resident population geese begins in February (NYSDEC, 2007). Canada geese are monogamous and will stay with their mate throughout their lives (NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), 2007). These factors and the instinct of Canada geese to breed near their birthplace culminated in the establishment of a localized population (USFWS, n.d).

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Both events occurred in the mid-1900s, and people who used to keep geese to use as decoys set them free after the practice was made illegal (USFWS, n.d). Resident Canada geese were introduced through a combination of government sanctioned efforts to increase the Canada geese population and changes in hunting regulations which made it illegal to use live Canada geese to attract other birds (USFWS, n.d). These geese populations occupy an area that contrasts with other Canada geese populations, which subsist in northern regions of Canada for most of their lives (USFWS, n.d). One such population is known as the Atlantic flyway resident population due to their mostly year-round presence in the southernmost parts of Canada and eastern United States (USFWS, n.d). Within the flyway, several populations of Canada geese exist, distinguished by their breeding ranges and subspecies composition (USFWS, n.d). from Maine down to Florida this area is known as the Atlantic Flyway (U.S. A portion of the population migrates through an area which includes eastern states in the U.S. Every year, thousands of Canada geese (Branta canadensis) migrate south in the fall and winter along paths of travel called flyways.

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