Learning Snow Goose Language
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I’m used to the sound of the Canada Geese choir as they come and go to the bay in their disciplined V formation. What I heard coming was not Canada Geese. It was squawking, raucous; the formation undisciplined. I squinted into the daylight and it looked like the birds high over head were white. Surely not seagulls who scream not whatever this sound was. These didn’t soar like gulls. They flapped, birds at work; white and noisy. What are they? “Snow Goose,” I said out loud to no one. I knew nothing about snow geese, other than the name and maybe a picture in the Field Guide. I’d never seen one or heard one. I was guessing.
I asked around to my new friends: Ever see snow geese here? No one did. I asked my son in Cape Charles, VA, a few miles up the coast if this could be a fly way. He said he thought the North East Fly Way Zone ended in Delaware or Maryland. He didn’t think he’d ever seen a snow goose.
Then it happened again another day. Then the next. I got out the Field Guide, and I Googled. These big noisy birds are definitely Snow Geese. They use the North East Flyway, but more than 818,00 gather between the Albemarle Sound and the Virginia border destroying agriculture, competing for Canada’s breeding grounds, competing for space and food of other water fowl, and covering everything in goose poop. I can see on the Guide’s migratory map why I’ve never seen one or heard a flock before. Though I’ve lived many places and have always been a watcher, I’ve never lived in Snow Goose territory. It seems they’ve arrived earlier than expected here in NE NC. They normally settle in between February 15 and March 31. I saw the first flock in November, the subsequent ones in December.
They are such a problem for the agriculture in this area that there are two hunting seasons and no limit. Over 500 decoys are employed to coax them to the water and their last rendezvous.
I’m disappointed by all this new knowledge. Saying “Snow Geese” sounds so exotic, so…lovely, so esoteric. Seeing their loosely-formed corps overhead is like standing in a snow globe. But truth be told, they are noisy, dirty, destructive, over-populated bullies with a bounty. Who knew the truth would be painful to hear? Uh oh. I hear them coming in from the bay at this very moment. I’ll wave from my window. Hello. Goodbye.