Snow Goose

Nature isn’t black and white— unless, of course, you’re talking about Snow Geese. These ivory birds with ebony wingtips eat mainly grasses, and are known for their fantastic migrations. They spend their summer on the tundra in the far north, and migrate as far south as Mexico for the winter. They are runners as well as fliers, and in the vulnerable, flightless days of moulting they have been known to outrun predators. They actually aren’t always black and white—juveniles, seen behind the adult in the photo, are all gray. There are also two colour morphs to Snow Geese: the dark morph is rare but dominant trait that gives adults a dark gray colouring.

Many migrating Snow Geese follow the Pacific Flyway, a collection of migration routes that follow the west coast. Birds take advantage of the salt marshes and estuaries along the Pacific Flyway, where they can stuff themselves full of delicious grasses to fuel their journey. Birdwatchers also take advantage of the salt marshes and estuaries along the Pacific Flyway, where they can see a fantastic variety of species that passes through every spring and fall.

The Snow Geese that follow the Pacific Flyway love the farmers’ fields along the coast, eating stubble, weeds, and potatoes that the farmers left behind. The fields in Delta fill with thousands of Snow Geese every winter; their flocks are awe-inspiringly large (and loud!). When fields are in short supply, geese turn to park fields. I saw these geese on November 17 in the field near Jericho Sailing Centre, where they’ve been hanging around for over a week.

Snow Goose range map. Snow Geese following the Pacific Flyway go along the west coast of  North America. Map from sdakotabirds.com/species/maps/snow_goose_map.htm

When Snow Goose populations started to plummet in the early 1900s, there was a hunting ban put in place in Canada and the US. The ban worked, and Snow Goose numbers have been on the rise ever since. They’ve become so numerous that they are beginning to mow their Arctic breeding ranges to the ground. This year, the Snow Goose migration was twice the size it’s been in years past. This might be why this small flock is being seen at Jericho Park—so many geese on the marshes and farms may be forcing the weaker ones to find food in alternative places.

A black and white goose isn’t always black and white, and neither is conservation. Should we advocate for increased hunting of Snow Geese (and Canada Geese, who are mowing down the estuaries of B.C.) to save the plants in the Arctic? Perhaps other problems with geese are more important to us—the way they can take down jet planes when they get gruesomely sucked into the machinery, the damage they can do to farmers’ fields, and the poop they leave all over our parks. Is the right decision for the wrong reasons a wrong decision? Maybe in years to come we will look forward to the annual Christmas goose as a sustainable alternative to turkey or ham.