March Winds Do Blow and We Shall Have Snows

It was the first week of March when H and I were driving south through an area of extensive fields, scattered woodlots and a few farmsteads. In a field of corn stubble a flock of thousands of snow geese caught our eye(s). It wasn’t the 105,000 snow geese at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area described in this post from five years ago – but there were probably 5,000 birds.

The geese fed avidly on whatever corn or green plants they could find in the field.

Scattered throughout the flock were a few blue morph birds. Years ago these blueish birds were considered a separate species (the blue goose), but are now believed to be just a color phase.

All the while some birds took flight to land elsewhere in the field, others flew in at a fairly high elevation and then spiraled down to land in the field.

These snow geese are in the process of migrating, which is how the birds spend half of their lives. Winter is spent along the Atlantic coast from New England to South Carolina, summers in Greenland or the Canadian Arctic.

The eastern population follows narrow migration corridors and has a handful of favored stopovers to rest and feed – Middle Creek, the northern end of New York’s Finger Lakes, Vermont’s Dead Creek and the St. Lawrence River in Quebec.

We enjoyed watching and listening to the flock as did a few other people who drove past.

And then they were gone, even the few stragglers

The next morning I returned to see if the birds had settled down on a nearby lake or if another another large flock had arrived – no such luck.

All I could locate was a small flock of 100-150 snow geese feeding in another field of corn stubble –

This flock also took flight headed north. Since we seldom see them in the fall during their southbound migration, we’ll have to wait until next spring to see snow geese again.