Since I posted Marymine's video, there have been a few questions about the snow geese. This article might be of interest:
"More than a million snow geese return to California’s wetlands every winter.
It’s
a migration dating back millennia. Their arrival sends bird enthusiasts
and conservationists flocking to the Sacramento Valley to catch the
noisy spectacle.
1. Where did the snow geese come from?
For
thousands of years, snow geese have migrated from the Arctic along the
Pacific flyway to winter on the Sacramento River floodplain.
Now that humans control the river’s
flow through dams and other management, natural flooding no longer
occurs. “That’s why preserving wetland wildlife refuges (where
the geese now congregate) is so important.”
While some migrate
from as far as Russia, most of California’s snow geese are likely flying
from Alaska and western Canada, Humboldt State University wildlife
management professor and goose expert Jeff Black said. While at their
summer breeding grounds, snow geese lose their flight feathers,
grounding them. They grow back at the end of summer, and the geese take
flight for the western United States and Mexico.
2. Where is home now that they’re here?
Besides refuges, snow geese and other wetland wildlife hangout in rice fields, which serve as “surrogate wetlands.”
Rice
farmers, who flood their fields after the fall harvest, welcome them,
said Jim Morris, spokesman for the California Rice Commission in
Sacramento. Snow geese arrive “just in time” to fertilize fields with
their droppings, enriching soil before spring planting.
The fields
supply more than 60% of the fall/winter food consumed by wetland
migratory birds, Morris said. Part of that feast is the stubble left
from harvested rice plants. What they don’t eat, their big flappy feet
may smack down, pushing it under water and into the soil. “You need the
stubble to decompose before you can plant again, (so birds provide) a
real service.”
About 230 wetland species graze in the Sacramento Valley, home to 97% of California’s 500,000-acre rice grow, Morris said.
California
is the second largest rice-producing state after Arkansas, growing more
than four billion pounds of rice. More than 90% is sushi rice.
3. How do I know if what I’m seeing is a snow goose?
Snow
geese are hard to miss. They’re a big bird with a 4.5-foot wingspan,
according to the Audubon Society, and usually gather in large numbers.
They sport white bodies with black wingtips, a look scientists think makes them blend in with the snow, Black said.
Look for couples.
“They migrate in devoted lifelong pairs,” Black said. "
By
Jessica Skropanic, Redding Record Searchlight
