Huge Flocks of Geese Detected on Radar

Too big to be snow flurries... images puzzled meteorologists in Wisconsin

National Weather Service

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service's office in Sullivan, Wis., at first didn't know what to make of the unexpected images showing up on their radar over southern Wisconsin Friday evening.

While there were a few flurries in the area, the radar returns were too strong for that - and seemed to be dispersing over time.

It turns out the radar was actually picking up huge flocks of migrating Canada geese, the Weather Office says. One weather observer, Steve Skalecki, told the weather service ""the honking of geese was loud and almost continuous." A teenager from Lincolnshire apparently heard the birds, tweeting, "A flock of wild geese have just flown over my house, I heard them."

As many as 100,000 to 200,000 geese migrating south stop to rest and refuel each year at the nearby Horicon Marsh, a national and state wildlife reserve, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.