Photo Study Of Birds At Middle Creek WMA, Lebanon County, PA, March 2nd, 2011

    We went to Middle Creek today to see the Snow Geese and Tundra Swans. There were 10's of thousands of geese and thousands of swans and there will be even more coming
    during the next couple of weeks! We saw many of the birds in the lake near the Nature Center and later in the fields on the inner loop. The bright sunshine, of course, helped
    produce some decent photo ops for us.

A Blizzard Of Snow Geese
 
A Couple Of Snow Geese With Collars

    We saw at least four collared geese today. We reported the collar numbers to the researchers at the University of Laval in Canada using their webform at:

     http://132.203.57.25/gon-gsg/en_recherche.php  
   

   The researchers then told us where and when each bird was collared, its age, its gender and how many times it has been reported. The first Snow Goose in the photo above,
   collar number MJ16, was collared as an adult female in August of 2005 at Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada. The Snow Goose in the second photo above, collar number PJ22,
   was collared as an adult female in August 2007 at Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada.

   The Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens) is a medium-sized goose that breeds on the arctic tundra. In winter, the Snow Goose travels south in very large, high-flying, noisy flocks.
   The swirling white of a descending flock suggests snow, but among the white birds are darker individuals. Until recently, the Blue Geese, as the dark birds are called, were
   considered a separate species. They are now recognized as merely a dark form (or "morph") of the Snow Goose. (Cornell BNA)

Tundra Swans

Tundra Swans Take Off

But we also saw hunters with their decoys on private land immediately adjacent to Middle Creek waiting for the geese to fly by:

Two raptors seen were:

Red-tailed Hawk
 
Turkey Vulture

    Species seen today: 

    To see a larger image of any of the photos below, please click on either the thumbnails or the captions....thanks!

     © Howard B. Eskin 2011           Please email your comments to hbeskin@voicenet.com             Please click here to go back to Bird Webpage Index