The Chesapeake Bay is home to resident and migratory Canada geese. Migratory Canada geese begin arriving in the fall and remain until late winter.
Chesapeake Bay Canada Goose Populations
Maryland biologists counted 414,200 Canada geese during the 2025 Midwinter Waterfowl Survey, which was higher than both the 350,500 geese counted in 2024 and the 5-year average of 354,760.
In 2017, Midwinter Waterfowl Survey teams observed the most Canada geese (641,200) since the survey began in 1955. The number of Canada geese observed in 2017 was higher than the previous record of 608,000 geese in 1981.
The Midwinter Waterfowl Survey has been conducted annually throughout the United States since the early 1950s. Maryland survey results are ultimately pooled with results from other states to provide a measure of the distributional changes and long-term trends of waterfowl wintering in the Atlantic Flyway.