The Snow Goose Scoop
Autumn 2023 — A Message from Bryan
With regret and wistfulness, I will no longer be tracking the Snow Goose migration through the Champlain Valley of Vermont and New York. Although the geese are among the greatest of avian spectacles, I’ve launched a new online project called Chasing Nature, where I’m writing essays on wildlife, wild places, and the human condition. Chasing Nature is now my passion (and my Third Act).
Perhaps on Chasing Nature I’ll report on the geese and on the Snowy Owl distribution across North America this winter. So check in there now and then. Better yet, subscribe or just browse — it’s free. For now, my intellectual capital and online energy are devoted to those essays. (By the way, that’s the Chasing Nature logo.)
Thanks for being here over the years. It’s meant a lot to me.
— Bryan Pfeiffer
The Map
A map, from eBird, of Snow Goose sightings around the world (no longer active).
2022 Backgrounder
What happened to all the geese? And why you might visit Vermont and not see the thousands of geese actually sitting there.
A Blue Ross's Goose
My lesson on the finer points of Snow Goose/Ross' Goose identification — something that should help you become a better birdwatcher.
White Geese ID
The finer points of field identification of Snow and Ross's Goose, and their hybrids, from David Allen Sibley.
Resources and Readings
Snow Goose – The account from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds site.
Identification of White Geese by David Sibley – Help with telling Ross’s Goose from Snow Goose.
Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area – Vermont’s prime goose-viewing opportunity. The visitor center is now closed for the 2022 season.
Geese Setting the Table for Polar Bears – The New York Times reports that a warming planet leaves polar bears with less opportunity to hunt seals. So they’re turning to snow geese chicks and eggs instead.
One Day, Two Ross’s – My account of seeing an exceedingly rare Ross’s Gull and the generally rare Ross’s Goose during a single day in 2013.
