STATELY GEESE AND SWANS

      You think you hear it, then you did, the clear, ringing honking of a flock of airborne Canada geese in the distance.  But the geese come closer and closer, and their bugling is ever louder, stirring excitement in many people.  Then those majestic geese sweep into view, high in the sky, and pass over in V or line formation and continue on, their boisterous vocalizing fading with them.

     Canada geese, cackling geese Atlantic brant, snow geese, Ross's geese, white-fronted geese and tundra swans are large, stately birds that are common in North America.  For years, I annually saw Canada geese, snow geese and tundra swans, in large numbers on impoundments and estuaries, here in southeastern Pennsylvania, and in neighboring Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey.  But today, I admire the elegance of these birds on our home computer screen, through live cameras at places where those waterfowl, and their relatives, winter, and gather early in spring, prior to their migrations north to nest. 

     These magnificent geese and swans, and their relatives throughout the world, walk well on the ground, swim strongly with webbed feet and fly swiftly for long distances.  All species have long necks to reach underwater after aquatic vegetation.  All species are vegetarians, some even turning to rye grass and corn kernels in fields when those foods are available. Look in field guides to birds and computers to see their beautiful colors and color patterns.         

     Great flocks of geese and swans do everything together.  Masses of them migrate together and daily fly to feeding areas.  They float on lakes together, where they rest, digest, preen and socialize, and vocalize all the while.  That trait, and their size, protect most of them most of the time, the reason every pair of each species raises only a few young per year.    

     I first saw Canada geese in the 1950's, when V-shaped flocks flew high over Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in October, on their way south to the Chesapeake Bay area to spend the winter.  They nested in Canada and were escaping ice and snow there.  And in the mid-1960's, Canadas were stocked in Pennsylvania to build up a permanent resident, huntable population of them in that state.  Today Canada geese are nesting in many areas of the United States, from their being stocked in big numbers in many parts of this nation in the 1960's.

     Cackling geese are half-sized relatives of Canada geese, and have the feather patterns of their bigger cousins.  But the cute and petite cacklers have shorter beaks, more rounded heads and shorter necks and legs.  This species of smaller goose raises goslings along the Arctic Ocean of northern Canada and spends winters in southcentral parts of the United States.  I see them by the thousands on the shallow Platte River at Audubon's Rowe Sanctuary in Nebraska during their spring migration north in February.  Some cackling geese move around with Canada geese.  

     Atlantic brant also are small-sized relatives of Canada geese.  They nest along the Arctic Ocean and winter mostly in the extensive salt marshes of coastal New Jersey.  I see the handsome brant on Barnegat Bay and a tiny salt marsh on Long Beach Island through a live camera.  

     Wintering snow geese migrate, and move around, in thrilling-to-see flocks of tens of thousands across much of the United States.  Today I see them by computer in Blackwater Refuge in Maryland, Middle Creek Refuge in Pennsylvania, Rowe Refuge in Nebraska and Sacramento Refuge in California.  Their great numbers that erase views of backgrounds when they are airborne and their deafening calling out all at once is exciting, and overwhelming.  Dark birds with white necks and heads are blue geese, a color phase of snow geese.  

     Ross's geese are a cute, petite form of their close relatives- the snow geese.  Ross's geese raise goslings along the Arctic Ocean of northern Canada and most winter along the Pacific Coast of the United States.  I see them by computer in the Sacramento Refuge.  Ross's geese have both the white phase and the blue phase of feather coloring, just like snow geese.  And some Ross's geese move about with snow geese.          

     White-fronted geese, also known as speckle bellies because of the dark, cross-wise striping on their underparts, nest in the Canadian Arctic.  I see them mostly wintering at the Sacramento Refuge, where they mix with snow geese, Ross's geese and cackling geese.  I also see them migrating north with Cackling and snow geese at Rowe Sanctuary in February.    

    Tundra swans are the most elegant of the elegant, in the air, and on water and fields.  They raise cygnets on the Arctic tundra and mostly winter along shores of Chesapeake Bay.  Groups of them fly out to harvested cornfields where they feed on corn kernels and winter rye fields where they ingest the green shoots of rye plants.  I see them around Kent Island on the Chesapeake Bay, at Blackwater Refuge and Middle Creek Refuge.

     Watch for these magnificent birds this spring or next winter, either in person, or by live cameras and computer screens.  Those stately birds are beautiful, exciting to see and truly inspiring.  There are no God-created creatures more wonderful than these.  

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