Both parents stay with the goslings, and the female broods them nightly for about a week, and then less often. When young are half-grown, their parents begin to molt. 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.