Honk! Canada Geese Overhead Students Dance With the Migration Canada Geese in flight. Stephen J. Lang for The Wisconsin Society for Ornithology One Georgia observer saw "a very large flock of Canadian geese heading north in the afternoon. They were so noisy, and so high up in the sky we had a hard time spotting them. Approximately 100 - 150 birds. Beautiful!" Are the geese heading your way? Read on to find out about some students and dancers eagerly watching for the duck and geese migration to arrive this spring. Click here to learn more about Canada Geese. And here's a link to a Canada Goose Movie. Move Like the Birds! Join Students in an Online Navigational Dance Project In spring 2004, Bird Brain Dance Company will follow the migration route of ducks and geese while learning wonderful things about themselves and the birds. Along with students in several North American schools, you're invited to join them on the Web. Students in partner schools along the route will work with professional dancers of Bird Brain Dance Company's as the dancers travel the migration route. They start in Corpus Christi on March 10 and end in Canada's Whiteshell Province State Park in May. The participating classrooms along the route will post data and share writing, videos, photos, artwork and observations as they learn about bird navigation and physiology during the project. At the same time, the students will learn more about their own navigational skills. Watch the Bird Brain Website! In the meantime, have a go at some fun activities these students will do during the project: Experiment with moving your body to show different types of flight patterns. Use your arms and body to show the effects of flapping, gliding, bounding, and soaring. Make spirals in space and spirals in your body, then try doing a spiraling/soaring dance. Choose three different moves you have observed in one bird. Try them out. Make the movements larger or smaller. Make up a solo dance by repeating the movements you see in the birds and arranging them in different sequences of movement or "phrases." Try moving the phrases through space and interacting with other classmate's phrases. Choreograph a "bird movement" dance by deciding who moves where and when—based on what you see the birds do. Enjoy each other's works! *All activities used with permission of Jennifer Monson, Bird Brain Dance. Thank you! Try This! Journaling Question Landmarks and physical features can be important to migratory birds. Look carefully at a map of the Mississippi River Flyway that migratory ducks and geese follow. Divide the route by state and look at a state map to identify natural landmarks, bodies of water, or wetlands along the route. What are some good stopover sitesin your area for migratory birds?   Copyright 2004 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form