After a long dry spell we finally got something we chased after. Since Saturday there have been reports of snow geese and a greater white-fronted goose in the MSU fields about a mile from us. The snow geese and white-fronted are mingled in with thousands of Canada geese flying around the area. Morning and evening we have dutifully been hitting spots where we thought the geese were. Each time we didn’t see them and figured they flew out. Then we would get back and see on the listserve that someone else saw them. A literal wild goose chase.
Then we found out that they were in a field accessible by a road posted as “MSU Research, No Trespassing”. Apparently the sign is a bluff and birders drive past it. Sure enough, this morning we got both a white phase and a blue phase snow goose within minutes of blowing past the no trespassing sign. We didn’t see the white-fronted this morning or when I did a quick check this evening.
Lise breaking the rules.
Snow goose ignoring the “Research, no trespassing” sign.
There are thousands of Canada geese around here. It seems the geese are a lot more common now than when I first started birding a few decades ago. A lot of people see them as a nuisance species, defiling golf courses and beaches with droppings. I still kind of like them, especially when I see thousands of them lifting off in the morning or evening. Long strings of geese, calling and flying in every direction with the early morning or evening light behind them. Something in that always moves me. I remember as a kid loving to see the Vs of migrating geese, heading somewhere while I was stuck in Lebanon, Pa.
(quote added by Lise)
“One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is the spring.”
― Aldo Leopold
Wild geese are an unofficial symbol of mercenaries. It goes back to a period of time in Irish history, from the late 1500s to the middle of the 1700s. Irishmen left Ireland to serve as mercenaries in the armies of Europe. Usually armies that were fighting the British. In Ireland it was referred to as the Flight of the Wild Geese. Eventually the term “the wild geese” became synonymous with mercenaries in general.
Don’t know how much birding we will get in the next couple days. Swim meet Thursday night in Grand Ledge and a tournament in Grand Rapids this weekend. One of Molly’s events is the 500 meter. Competitively swimming twenty nonstop pool lengths. I might be able to swim 20 nonstop lengths but the contents of my stomach would be trailing behind me. Kind of like chumming for fish.
Off to the races.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 