As autumn approaches, geese prepare to migrate. Family groups gather in small flocks, leave the breeding grounds and fly leisurely to staging areas along the route south. Migrating geese travel by day or night, flying until tired and then landing to feed and rest. Honkers fly in vees or occasionally in single, diagonal lines. A trailing goose encounters less air resistance, thus uses less energy, because of the turbulence set up by the bird flying just ahead.
Flight altitudes vary with weather conditions, distance to be flown and time of year.
Geese fly high over long distances, lower for short hops. Geese of the Atlantic Flyway winter primarily in Chesapeake Bay and Delmarva region. Smaller numbers winter from as far north as New York and coastal New England to southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In spring, honkers retrace their routes to ancestral breeding grounds. Migrating flocks are composed of several family units, parents and offspring of the previous year, but the yearlings leave their parents shortly after arrival.