The Snow Goose

The Snow Goose is a medium-sized goose that breeds in the Alaskan tundra and winters in the warmer areas of the United States. The adults are usually white with black-tipped wings and the young are grayish or “blue”. There is also a blue morph version of the adult goose that has grayish feathers. The feet and bill are pink and there is a black line or “smile” on the sides of the bill.

Every fall, the Snow Goose embarks on a long trip. On the west coast of the United States, the snow goose leaves its nesting site in Alaska, to travel in huge flocks over thousands of miles south to the warmer weather of the Central California Valley. There it spends the winter resting in wetlands and feeding on winter grains planted by farmers. The Central Valley used to be covered in vast wetlands and hosted millions of geese, ducks and swans, but early in the last century farming took over the area and the wetlands were drained to make the area suitable for planting crops. Today only a small fraction of the area is still natural wetlands. Thankfully, people realized the impact farming was having on the environment and worked out a compromise. In the spring and summer, the fields support California’s agricultural demands, hosting rice, cotton, tomatoes, onions and other crops. In the fall, farmers harvest the crops and burn the waste. The fields are then either planted with winter grains or flooded with irrigation water to support the migrating waterfowl that continue their annual migration south. Due to these restoration efforts, we can continue to witness the awesome sights and sounds of masses of snow geese taking flight at once over the Central Valley.

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San Luis NWR, Early November

Not all of my field trips are that productive. Sometimes I head out at the wrong time of the day or the wrong time of the year.

In early November, I was anticipting the arrival of the migrating waterfowl that visit the Central California valley. The fields that are farmed in the area were once vast wetlands and provided a winter home to huge flocks of geese, ducks, swans and other migrating birds. Then farmers drained the wetlands and farmed the land, reducing the habitat for the birds. Fortunately, conservationists and farmers have reached a compromise and now farmers turn their fields back over to the birds after the harvest. After the harvest, they cut down their fields of rice and corn and plant winter grain crops to feed the migrating birds and flood the fields, providing food and habitat for the winter visitors.

Last year I saw large flocks of snow geese and colorful ducks in the area and was hoping to find them again, but I started out a little too early in the season this time. No huge flocks greeted me at the San Luis refuge, but I did see several Red-Tailed Hawks waiting at their posts on the power poles.

A shy Belted Kingfisher watched the drainage ditch near the entrance but never came too close to my car.

Mysterious streams of silk floated on the warm air and caught in the trees, grass and power poles. They may have been from young spiders heading to new homes.

The tule elk, regular residents of this refuge, were no where in sight this time. They may have been resting in the shade on this warm November afternoon. Here's a shot of one from early October.

Even the Great Blue Herons, which hunt year-roud for frogs and fish along the irrigation ditches were playing hard to find. Here's one from early October.

I guess everyone was taking the afternoon off. Too bad, too, since the weather was perfect. Well, at least I had last month's photos to look through. Better luck next time.

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