A spokesperson for Oak Hammock Marsh says the migration of Canada geese has had an early start here in Southern Manitoba.

Jacques Bourgeois Promotions and Marketing Coordinator at Oak Hammock Marsh says this is a time of year where the geese are preparing for the upcoming long flight south. He notes migration has started almost two weeks early this year.

" Well usually migration tapers out around the end of October, we’ve seen birds coming back as late as November. Usually, October is basically the end of it with the peak season being the end of September or early October but this year it seems a little earlier."

Bourgeois says at this point we're at the tail end of the song bird migration which started in August and most of them are gone by now. He says for him and his team this is an exciting time of year.

" It’s very exciting, all the birds are coming back and surprisingly all of them are already building up in big numbers. It seems like the migration is about a week to a week and a half earlier this year. We had such a glorious summer, plenty of food, conditions were just right and apparently, we won the weather lottery in Manitoba this year across so I guess it was very good for the geese."

Bourgeois adds at this time of year geese are flying in all different directions to practice and build up muscle for the long flight ahead because it is a long journey and they need to be able to do it. He says they’re also flying around looking for places to eat, for example, when a farmer harvests his crop there’s still some grain left on the field so the geese will go and find those fields.