ICE, SNOW GEESE AND STARS

     On February 18, 2026, about 100,000 elegant snow geese landed on the 400-acre impoundment at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in southeastern Pennsylvania to rest during their annual, early-spring migration north to their nesting territories on the Arctic tundra.  But because the stately, restless snow geese shift about every few days to find fresh feeding fields, "only" 60,000, (an estimate), snow geese rested on Middle Creek's lake, which stirred excitement among local birders again.  But that number should increase to over 100,000 snow geese by early March, which is about the peak of their numbers at Middle Creek, as it has every March for the last 40 years or more.

      The flighty snow geese are on and off any impoundment, day and night.  They fly out to fields twice a day, usually.  Flying bald eagles put whole great flocks to speedy flight.  And, sometimes, the whole tremendous host of snows take flight from a lake or field for no reason I can see.  

      After feeding on corn kernels in harvested corn fields, or grazing on the green shoots of winter rye in fields, the snow geese either rest and digest in the fields, or fly back in great, clamorous waves of themselves across the sky to the lake to rest, digest, preen feathers and socialize.    

     Over the years, I have seen great, exciting flocks of snow geese on Middle Creek's impoundment and nearby fields during the day.  But I never saw them there at night, until The Pa. Game Commission installed a live camera that focuses on the lake.  Now I can see the snows on the lake at night through that camera and our home computer screen, as I did in a couple of recent nights, on February 25 and 26.  

     While watching the around 60,000 snow geese on our computer screen during those nights, I noticed they were not as active as during the day, and not as boisterous.  They were all either sitting on ice in Middle Creek's lake, or floating on a strip of open water, surrounded by that ice.  

     The nights of February 25 and 26 had clear skies, with a few wispy clouds and lots of stars.  I was struck by the beauties of the twinkling stars, ice on the lake with many thousands of noisy snow geese resting on it, and the dark woods surrounding the impoundment.  And because the snow geese are mostly white, they "stood out"on the ice in the night.  I could see them as individuals.  

     Wintering snow geese, and their duck, goose and swan relatives, all rest and feed in open, cold-wind areas with no shelter at all, except their wonderfully-thick, two-layered plumages.  The fluffy inner layer traps heat and keeps them warm.  And the coarser, outer feathers shed water, snow and frigid winds.  

     Snow geese, and their waterfowl relatives, probably take comfort in their great hordes that offer safety in numbers, and social comfort.  Snow geese are particularly sociable in their great masses that have to do everything together in those hordes.  They all rest together, feed together, and fly in great waves of honking birds across the skies, mostly before sunrise and shortly after sunset, when their swarms are silhouetted black before the brightly-colored sky. 

     I discovered that snow geese are just as elegant and intriguing at night as they are during the day.  They are seen in charming settings of ice and snow, or dark waters, in the night.  And the white snow geese themselves are illuminated by stars, moonlight or outdoor lights, which makes them more visible and stately.      

                   

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