This week’s Bird of the Week, compliments of the Weminuche Audubon Society and Audubon Rockies, is the snow goose.
During late winter, groups of snow geese begin dispersing from their large winter flocks to migrate north. Breeding grounds are located on tundras of Canada and northern Alaska, often above the Arctic Circle. Spring flocks are much smaller than those of fall and may consist of family groups or individuals. Recently, a group of 15 was seen feeding during a stopover here.
Migration from wintering areas begins in February along one of the four major North American flyways. Northerly progress depends on the disappearance of ice and snow to expose vegetation to feed on during their journey. Most snow geese arrive on breeding grounds by mid to late May.
Females feel the pull of the place where they were born and return to their natal colony to nest. Mated pairs stay together for life, with the male following his partner. The female chooses a nest site close to water on a slight rise in the terrain as a vantage point to spy predators.
Chicks grow quickly and leave the nest within one day. In the first three weeks of life, goslings may walk with their parents up to 50 miles to areas with better food sources. They remain with their parents until mate selection during their second or third year.
Snow geese exist in different forms and are most commonly all white with black wingtips. They also exhibit the blue goose morph, dark gray-blue with a white head, and intermediate variations. An identifying trait of the snow goose is its triangular shaped orange-pink bill with a black “grin patch” where the mandibles meet.
Snow geese feed on land and in shallow water for a variety of plants, eating nearly any part, either by grazing or ripping the whole plant from the ground. Some areas of their tundra habitats are suffering from the high numbers of geese both impacting themselves and nesting shorebirds.
In the early 1900s, snow geese numbers had sunk so low that hunting was prohibited, but today management focus has shifted from conservation to regulation due to their high numbers.
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