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Snow Goose
Chen caerulescens
33.3118, -115.62
Field Notes
Description:
The best analysis I have heard of spotting a flock of snow geese is that you feel like you are standing in a snow storm. This flock was spotted on the eastern shore of the Salton Sea, and had to have numbered in the thousands...note the last photo above. These birds are all white, except for dark markings on the end third of the wings, see first photo above.
Habitat:
This flock was spotted on a fallow agricultural area adjacent to a wetland at the Salton Sea. This area is a part of their wintering habitat. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, snow geese breed in colonies from the the high arctic to sub-arctic in Canadan and Alaskan tundra areas. Per the Cornell Lab of Ornithology..."they choose areas near ponds, shallow lakes, coastal salt marshes, or streams (including river islands), preferring rolling terrain that loses its snow early and escapes flooding during spring thaw."
Notes:
Snow geese have increased their population size over time, and are not considered endangered. Per the Cornell Lab of Ornithology..."Snow Geese form three separate regional populations—eastern, central, and western—distinctions that are more or less preserved as the geese migrate to their wintering grounds...During spring and fall migration along all four major North American flyways, geese frequently stop in open areas like lakes, farm fields, protected freshwater and brackish marshes, sluggish rivers, and sandbars. 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."
My best advice when photographing large flocks of snow geese...take an umbrella!
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