Boundary Dam is a unique part of Saskatchewan for a number of reasons, and one of those reasons is the fact that geese tend to stay there year-round instead of migrating to warmer climates down south during the cold winter months. This is something that doesn't happen in most parts of the prairies, but thanks to a year-round source of water the Estevan area is the perfect home for some geese year-round.

Katherine Conkin is the Wildlife Biologist responsible for birds with Saskatchewan's Ministry of Environment, and she says that there isn't a specific reason that geese decide to stay or leave. Geese don't just head south because of an evolutionary trait or out of habit, it's actually a choice that a lot of geese make to stay every year.

"The Ministry does not track the number of Canada geese that ever enter each year. Waterfowl populations are monitored across the continent using a variety of methods, but they're all geared towards large-scale population changes. The local officers that are interested in birds give me approximately 2000 birds that typically stick around the dam. They hadn't been out this year so they weren't sure if it was similar this year, but in past, that's kind of the numbers they've been looking at."

Canada Geese are uniquely adapted to Canadian weather in a way that also allows them to travel to those warmer climates whenever they so choose. They have a number of ways to keep themselves warm in such as trapping air under their feathers that is then warmed up but their own body weight. 

For an animal that spends so much of its time on or near the water though, exposed parts of their bodies like their legs or their bills would be more problematic if it wasn't for some adaptations their bodies make.

"They have oil glands near the base of the tail that allow them to waterproof their feathers, so they're not just getting really wet and actually and a neat adaptation for geese is that their arteries and veins in their legs are really in quite close proximity to one another, so that allows the warm blood from the heart coming in the arteries to pass close enough to the cold blood in the veins and the feet that's moving back towards the hear to be warmed up to share some of that warmth and that keeps everything from freezing."

The main thing that keeps geese north of the border during the winter is water. If they have access to open water, they will stick around through the cold months like they often do near the river in Saskatoon and in Wascana Park in Regina. One concern through the winter for geese can be food though as their diet changes towards more agricultural grains which can be harder to find, but they still get by.

"At this time of year, they're likely relying on exposed agricultural grains where they can get them. Typically a diet of a Canada goose does switch to largely agricultural grains if they are overwintering here, but if that's not available if we've had a big snowfall they certainly will use submerged aquatic vegetation as well. They've got pretty strong bills and they can access that pretty well."

Besides hunters, typically coyotes are the biggest predator for Canada geese, and while geese might be more visible to predators against the white snow compared to all the colours we see during the rest of the year, winter vs summer doesn't come into effect how they would have to deal with predators that much. That ties in more with their breeding season as coyotes start to bother them more when they have had their young.

Overall, the geese that decide to stick around are not tracked, so we can't say for certain if the geese that stay at Boundary Dam are the same geese every year or not, but Conkin doesn't see a reason to believe they are. Geese choose to stay in Canada and at Boundary Dam because it takes less energy to stay than it does to fly south, and they can live happily and comfortably through the winter here.