About a kilometre down the road from here, the little river that flows past Willow House widens into a farm pond. There have been many flocks of Canada Geese flying over in the last few days and some of them stop at the pond. However, when I drove past the pond yesterday, I spotted something new. Snow Geese have joined the Canada Geese! Snow geese (Chen coerulescens) are a cosmopolitan species, and the most abundant goose in the world, but it is rare to see them here in Southern Ontario. They breed far to the north, and winter far to the south. In December of 2009, I was fortunate to see big flocks of Snow Geese passing through the area on their way south for the winter, and posted about them here, but I didn’t see any in 2010.
It was a nice surprise to catch them setting down for a rest on their journey back north. Most of the geese were white, but there were also a few blue-morph individuals. Here’s an excerpt from my December 2009 post:
Snow geese come in two morphs, or color patterns. White adults have black wing tips and pink bills, with a blackish ‘grin’ patch. Their feet and legs are pink. Blue-morph adults have a white head and upper neck while their bodies are dark bluish-grey. They may have white tail feathers and varying amounts of white on their belly
It is the Lesser Snow Goose (Chen coerulescens coerulescens) that is seen in Ontario. They breed on the coasts of Hudson and James bays and winter in the mid-Atlantic states and south to Mexico. Snow geese form lifelong pairs while on their wintering grounds and can breed into their twenties. On their breeding grounds, the geese form large colonies, with each pair defending a small area around their own nest.
I wish every one of them a safe journey.
Willow House Chronicles 