Charlie’s Photo of the Week shows Snow Geese on their migration through the area on their way back to the Arctic for spring.

The Photo of the Week was taken March 4, 2019, in a flooded field off Youngs Island Road, Allamuchy. Snow Geese had arrived a few days earlier, transforming the normal peace and quiet into a loud, high-pitched, almost constant barking! This photo was taken from my car and what caught my eye was the intermingling of Snow Geese, Canada Geese, and some ducks, all enjoying the flooded fields, getting some food and rest during their migrations north, to their arctic breeding grounds. 

The Snow Goose, 25”-31”, is smaller than the Canada Goose, 35”-45”. They are pure white with black wing tips. They breed in the Arctic Tundra and winter in salt marshes and coastal bays, or, less commonly, in freshwater marshes and adjacent grain fields.

Range:  Breeds in arctic regions of North America and extreme eastern Siberia. In the West, winters from southern British Columbia and central California south to Baja California. Also, from the mid-Atlantic Coast and Gulf Coast from Mississippi to Texas.

They travel great distances in their migrations, from the arctic to the Gulf Coast. They are also very high fliers, sometimes just barely seen high in the sky! They can still be identified at these great altitudes because of their shifting curved lines and arcs they form as they fly.  Old-time hunters call them “Wavies,” but not because of the shape of their flocks; the word is derived from ‘wewe,’ the Chippewa name for the species.  NOTE: The birds have a dark phase, which was once considered a separate species named the ‘Blue Goose,’ which has bluish-gray upperparts, brownish underparts and white head and neck.  Blue-phased birds have increased in recent decades and can now be found along the East Coast among the thousands of white Snow Geese wintering there.

These are beautiful birds!!  They are also really something to watch and hear, in all phases of their activities, whether high over-head in their classic waves, OR, up close, witnessing them in perfect unison, blasting off from the ground with their deafening ‘barks’!!  My Flickr site has five albums covering all phases of their activities – I believe you will find those quite entertaining!!

Snow Geese at Kestrel Lane – https://www.flickr.com/photos/charliefineran/albums/72157651384859696

Snow Geese – Long distance travelers – https://www.flickr.com/photos/charliefineran/albums/72157632863185695

Snow Geese – two day visit – https://www.flickr.com/photos/charliefineran/albums/72157650366737466

Snow Geese in snow storm – https://www.flickr.com/photos/charliefineran/albums/72157651400704056

Snow Geese at Merrill Creek – https://www.flickr.com/photos/charliefineran/albums/72157650311817802

SPRING IS COMING!!!

Enjoy Your Open Space

Charlie Fineran
Director Open Space
Allamuchy Township Environmental Commission – Chairman
Allamuchy Historical Society – President