Snow Geese in the Oil Field

Abstract

~e year is 1940. An unstoppable 1'2erman arllly has overrun much of Europe. Thousands of British soldiers have been pushed to the edge of the sea where they are trapped and awaiting annihilation. Bomb blasts, machine gun fire, artillery explosions ca use terrible death and destruction. The French shores at Dunkirk are lit by glowing red explosions and darkened by billows of black smoke pouring out of bomb-blasted vehicles and ships.

In a heroic evacuation attempt, Churchill has called for all the small boats in Britain to ply the shallow waters off Dunkirk and shuttle the desperate soldiers from the bloody sand to the huge warships waiting miles offshore.

Amid the shell fire and bomb blasts, thousands of fishing boats, yachts and even tiny sailboats move from beach to ship then back to the beach again for another precious cargo of soldiers - whether it be six or eight men piled into an open sailboat or 200 jammed on a tugboat.

And through the red flames and colurnns of black smoke, in the glowing sky filled with shrapnel and dive bombers, there floats a great gleaming white bird above a tiny sailboat manned by a wild-haired, humpbacked little man who, with gleaming eyes, was doing his bit to rescue the doomed soldiers.

This great gleaming white bird, shining like an angel of deliverance, was, clear friends, lllY first introduction to the Snow Goose. The story was told by Paul Gallico in a short masterpiece called The Snow Goose, written in 1940 shortly after the Dunkirk evacuation. I read the story as a young boy before I really knew much about birds at all but the image of the large, majestic, white waterfowl was burned into

lllY brain. .

But what about the bird itself? Just what is a Snow Goose? Where do they live? What is known of them? It was many years after I read the story that J began to learn about the real bird through reading and talking to bird people.

The Snow Goose Chen caerulescens has two subspecies, the Greater C.c. atlantica and the Lesser C.c. caerulescens. The Greater, of course, is larger, weighing between six and ten and a half pounds while the Lesser weighs from four to six and a quarter pounds. Except for size, the two subspecies are very much alike and it is difficult to distinguish one from the other in the field. The Greater has a longer, heavier bill but one can't always grab the goose and put the calipers to its bill.

Both subspecies are snowy white in color with jet black wing primaries. Their legs, feet and bills are pinkish. On the bill is a curious black "grinning patch'.' The Greater Snow Goose is not as widespread as the Lesser. Its breeding grounds are restricted to part of northwest Greenland and a few islands in northeastern Canada. These populations tend to winter along the Atlantic coast from Maryland southward to North Carolina. It was, no doubt, this larger subspecies that was storm blown into England and entered the world of literature. There are, however, examples of both subspecies at large in Britain but no one knows for sure whether these birds escaped from captive flocks or whether they actually crossed the wide Atlantic.

The Lesser Snow Goose is much more abundant and widespread than is its heavier relative. Lesser Snow Geese, indeed, may be the most numerous species of all wild geese. Their breeding range extends along the arctic coast of North America and

ibcria from Hudson Bay westward to probably the Lena River in Siberia.

Strange to say, the Lesser Snow Goose is a polymorphic subspecies - that is, there are two different color phases. The white phase is the more numerous but there is a darker "blue" phase which, as late as 1960, was thought by some to be a separate species, the Blue Goose. The Greater Snow Goose population does not seem to have a blue phase.

I31ue geese breed in mixed colonies, intermingled with the white geese. There is probably some interbreeding and there are a few geese with intermediate color patterns but blue geese tend to prefer to mate with individuals of their own color. Blue geese are more abundant in the eastern part of the breeding range but seem to be working their \vay westward.

Snow Geese have strong bills with serrated edges suited for grazing and digging up roots of plants. In the arctic, they feed on grasses and sedges. On the migration route and in the wintering grounds, the geese have learned to rake grain and growing shoots of various crops. Occasionally, this puts bird lovers and farmers at odds and I'm sure that many a farmer has eaten the goose that fattened on his grain.

From this point on we'll be considering only the Lesser Snow Goose. These birds breed just about as far north as one can get. They arrive on the arctic coastal plain around the middle of May as the ice melts and leaves open water. Within two or three weeks, the breeding pairs go to nest. Those not breeding usually move off to a separate location to molt and wait out the short summer.

Back at the nesting colonies, the females lay three to five eggs in nests usually placed on raised hummocks on the tundra. The eggs hatch within 22 or 23 clays and the parents lead the goslings to the water, then on to separate brood-rearing locations. During this brood-rearing period, the adult geese are flightless because they are molting.