I shot the video above Friday morning just as the beautiful snowfall we received that day was beginning. These three snow geese have been hanging around the same area of Whallons Bay all week — they probably still are.
Have you seen them?
When I first saw the geese I was driving at night, and they were standing alongside Lake Shore Road. I thought they were some regular white geese like you might see on a farm. However, I saw them again in the daylight the next day and noticed the black coloring on their wing tips and realized they had to be a different kind. A quick search helped me identify them as snow geese.
The three geese are sticking together and I’ve seen them swimming on the lake, walking around foraging on land, and sleeping not to far from the shore at night. Maybe they’re making Whallons Bay their wintering location?
Snow Geese breed in colonies on Canadian and Northern Alaskan tundra in the vicinity of the coast, from the high arctic to the subarctic. […] They winter in regions on both American coasts as well as in some inland areas, frequenting open habitats like marshes, grasslands, marine inlets, freshwater ponds, and agricultural fields. (All About Birds)
Apparently, snow geese often travel in huge flocks or at least a large group, so it’s surprising to see only three together.
“Snow Geese don’t like to travel without the company of another couple dozen geese and can form flocks of several hundred thousand. Family groups forage together on wintering grounds, digging up roots and tubers from muddy fields and marshes.” (All About Birds)
There is a similar-looking bird called a Ross’s Goose, but it has a shorter neck than the geese I observed and research says their range isn’t near this part of the country (it’s further to the West). So I don’t believe I’m mistaken in my identification. What do you think?
Learn more about snow geese on the All About Birds website.
Related articles
- Snow Geese (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Snow Goose Migration (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Canada Goose Migration (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- October Wind, Canada Geese and Essex DNA (rosslynredux.com)
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