A March snow

I’m still not quite used to daylight time again. I keep thinking I can take a photo in the morning before work to use on the blog only to find it’s still too dark for that.  And those longer evenings don’t seem nearly long enough when there are animals to feed first.  However, today a bit of new snow helped the morning look brighter than it really was.

I didn’t get much new snow—the storm was worse to my south—but it was enough to make the roads slick again, especially as I was driving off the mountain.  Once down in the valley the roads were fine.  At least once a week since March began I think that “today” will be the last coldest day of the winter, only to be proven wrong a day or so later.  Winter is losing its grip, as a cold night is now followed by a day or so of warmer temperatures, but just when I think it’s gone, it makes another comeback.

Early migration is underway. I had a dozen tundra swans fly over the cabin this weekend. Yesterday I saw a flock of 32 ring-billed gulls heading north. Believe it or not this is a nearly rare occurrence. Even with all the ponds here on the mountain, I can easily go a year or more without finding any gulls for me year list. I also watched a brown creeper poking around the folds at the base of my largest beech tree.  That’s another first for this year for me.  Those little birds are always around but I don’t see them very often.  They are very secretive little things.

The groundhogs are out, too, though the ones that dig big holes on the ski slopes in summer are still underground. Off the slopes where the snow is largely melted is where I've seen them.  The ponds have a bit of open water, though still not much. The season is changing but there's a long way to go before winter's last gasp.

Sunday the geese flew north

Canada geese heading north and very high (taken with 300mm lens)

Sunday the geese flew north. And the tundra swans. By the thousands. Maybe by the tens of thousands.

It started on Saturday evening not long after dark, with the tundra swans. I heard that familiar “whoo-whoo” sound. And then, directly over the cabin where I have a bit of open sky, I saw them. A snowy white vee against the ebony sky, heading north. That flock was a big one, about 200 swans. If there’s anything more beautiful than seeing swans flying north at night, I can’t think what that might be.

And that was just the beginning. After that came the first of Canada goose flocks. I heard many more flocks than I saw, and I saw quite a few, even with the forest trees hiding many from my view. I heard them while I was on raccoon patrol—more about that tomorrow. The sound of the flocks went on for hours, perhaps all night. Certainly every time I was outside I never had to wait more than a few minutes before I heard the sound of another flock.

During the day on Sunday, even more flocks passed overhead. Mostly Canada geese, with an occasional flock of swans joining in. Sunday evening, I heard and then saw my first flock of snow geese. To my ear their honking is a bit less harsh than that of the Canada geese. Again, the sound went on for hours, well into the late night, until I was forced to bed.

Spring is here. It arrived with the geese and the swans heading north.

Migration underway!

Waterfowl migration is underway! Snow geese are amassing at Lancaster County’s Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, as are tundra swans. I managed a too-short trip to Middle Creek on Sunday morning and guess that well over 50,000 snow geese are currently on the site.

For me, this kind of waterfowl migration is one of the wonders of this world. I think there are more than the traditional 7, but I would still rank this in the top 2 or 3. The sound that so many geese make is deafening, so it’s a good thing they aren’t always calling. But when they do start calling, I know another flock is coming in to join the thousands already there. The geese can hear their fellows before I can, but it usually doesn’t take longer than 30 seconds or so before I can hear and see the new arrivals coming, too.

This year, the ice and snow cover have delayed this migration spectacle. In an average year, the geese and swans are moving north around the end of February. A weekend ago, only about 2500 geese were at the site. Yesterday it was roughly 50,000. Tomorrow it may well be 100,000. Because the arrival is later this year, I don’t think it will be spread out over as many days as usual, but that will mean more geese at once at Middle Creek. The photo shows only a very small portion of the geese.  But even if I'd had a wide-angle lens, it wouldn't begin to capture the whole span of snow geese.

In a normal year, this upcoming weekend would be spectacular, too. This year I am not sure of that, and the forecast for rainy weather ahead may also play a part. But if you can make the trip, either this year or in some future year, don’t miss it. Once you’ve seen it, you’ll want to come back every year to see it again. I’ve been coming for more than 20 years now, and I never get tired of this amazing spectacle.