As I write this column I can hear flocks of snow geese flying over the Strait. They were also flying overhead in the dark last night.
Snow geese are easily identifiable even without visual contact, as they constantly chatter to each other during their long migrational flights back and forth to Wrangel Island in eastern Siberia. If you see them overhead in good light, their white bodies contrasting with the black wing tips, are very recognizable.
Thousands of snow geese fly overhead going north in mid-April and are usually seen returning in mid-October. This year there was a very early flight of thousands of geese beginning in late September and early October and I counted eight skeins overhead in a few minutes on Oct. 1.
Before that, in the last five days of September, there was also a significant flight of greater white-fronted geese. Some of these birds even stopped off in our area as there were 35 birds foraging on the turf farm on Mason Road in West Sechelt on Sept. 27.
All of the western snow geese breed on Wrangel Island, but some winter in the Fraser Delta, some in Washington state, and thousands more in the Central Valley of California. During the winter we often have a few snow geese that reside in our area and they are seen foraging in grassy places such as playing fields and golf courses, often with the resident Canada geese.
The first of our common wintering ducks have also been reported.
Joe Harrison saw the first flock of 30 Barrow’s goldeneyes of the winter on Oyster Bay, in Pender Harbour, on Oct. 17 along with a single male bufflehead.
On Oct. 19 George Smith watched about 1,000 surf scoters flying back and forth in the Chaster Park area of Gibsons. These are the species that dominate winter bird populations on the Sunshine Coast and become as familiar to us as the proverbial robins.
On land the birds of summer have departed and the winter residents are taking their place. I now hear varied thrushes in the forest, the juncos have returned to our gardens and feeders, and it appears we will be visited this winter by many flocks of pine siskins that have returned to the area after an absence of about 18 months.
To report your sightings or questions email [email protected] or call 604-885-5539.
