RobertS975
(Do geese even fly at night?)
Yes, they do.
Also, there is a myth which persists still, that turning on the radar will somehow help prevent a birdstrike. This is false. The landing lights may be of limited use for bird avoidance at night0 and in cloud. which birds will fly in at departure and arrival altitudes.
A very good source for wide information this can be found at:
TP 13549 - Sharing the Skies
A good reason to obey the 250kt speed limit below 10k ASL and 200 kts within 5nm, (it's below 3k and within 10nm in Canada). The "per-squared law" works in perhaps unexpected ways unless one really thinks about it...a 10lb bird at 180kts has some "give" in terms of "splat-ness" - in other words, the impact loads will be "distributed" over a slightly wider area, (obviously limited to the bird's frontal print presented to the impact area to the aircraft), but at higher speeds, the pliability/plasticity of flesh is much tinier simply because it can't catch up to the speed of impact and is therefore a very hard, pointy source of energy with extremely high loads concentrated in a much smaller area of the airframe/windshield/engine, etc.
There is indeed a very good argument for obeying the speed limits below 10 and below 3.
Wonderful airmanship demonstrated in the decision-making and the controlled ditching not to mention the energy-management and timing to reduce speed, keeping in mind pitch attitude and (again) the "frontal presentation" of the airplane to an (initially) very hard water surface - tail not too low, wings level etc.
A fine lesson by a fine professional.
PJ2