Habitats

Wildlife

Recreation

Hunting

Fishing

Migration

Events

Bertrand

Volunteering

Maps

Contact/FAQ

Links

Friends Group

Small Wetlands Program

2008 Federal Duck Stamp Contest

 

The lesser snow goose comes in two distinct colors. The adult grayish-colored goose is called the blue goose. These birds have white heads and upper necks with slate-gray bodies, and varying amounts of white on their bellies. Their wings are pearl gray, with black tips. The white adults are completely white, except for black wing tips. Both the blue and white phases have pink bills, with black "grin patches", and rose-red legs and feet. The immature blue geese are almost entirely dark gray, with a white chin spot. Their legs, feet and bill are grayish brown. The young white geese are a sooty gray with a whitish belly and bill. Their legs and feet also are grayish brown. The two different-colored snow geese were once thought to be two separate species. However, since the white and blue birds nest together and interbreed, taxonomists have determined that the blue goose is simply a color phase of the snow goose.

Photos Cindy Myer-USFWS

Male and female geese look alike, and only differ slightly in their size. An adult male snow goose averages 29 inches in height, has a wing span of 59 inches, and weighs an average of 6 pounds. An adult female averages 28 inches high, with a wing span of 56 inches, and weighs 5.5 pounds.

Snow geese breed in the Arctic from Alaska to Greenland. The majority of the snow geese that migrate through DeSoto Refuge nest along the west coast of Hudson Bay. The geese arrive on the nesting ground before the snow has left the land. As the snow melts, the flocks break up and pairs vigorously defend an area of bare ground. They nest on the low grassy tundra plains, within a few miles of water. The snow geese nests are little more than scrapes in moss or gravel during the first few years. The geese build up the nest each year with moss, willows, and grass to form a more substantial raised nest in time.

The female snow goose lays two to ten eggs. An average clutch is 4 eggs. The male goose guards the nest from predators and other snow geese. He defends the nest by charging intruders with wings and neck outstretched and calling defiantly. The female is in charge of all the incubation of the eggs. She will leave her eggs only briefly to feed in the early stages of incubation. In the later stages she will seldom, if at all, leave her eggs. Due to their devotion, most females lose 25 percent of their body weight during nesting. The eggs will hatch three weeks after laying.

By the time the young hatch, the tundra grasses and sedges are about six inches tall and there are miles of perennial flowers in bloom. These plants and larvae provide most of the food for the young goslings. With the abundance of food and the long daylight hours the young grow rapidly. The goslings weigh 2.5 ounces when they hatch and ninety days later they will weigh over 5 pounds.

During the time the young are growing, the adult geese go through an annual molt which involves the entire body and wings. As a result, the birds are rendered flightless for a period of about 24 days. The adults regain their flight feathers about the same time as the goslings begin to fly. The young are completely fledged in 45 days, but many take short flights as early as 35 days after hatching.

The young geese reach sexual maturity at two years of age, but the majority of them will not breed until their third year. Sometime between their second and third year, a male and female will form a pair bond. Snow geese have very strong family ties and usually mate for life.

As the Arctic summer winds to a close, the snow geese begin to group up in areas called staging grounds. Their southward migration usually begins between August and October. Many factors contribute to their time of leaving, but biologists still do not understand what exactly governs their departures.

Snow geese migrate in unusually large flocks of 100 to 1000, which are made up of many family groups. The families will stay together through the migration. During the flights south, birds fly between 40 and 50 miles per hour. Their average altitude is around 3,000 feet, but radar has recorded geese as high as 20,000 feet. The flocks usually fly in a peculiar undulating fashion. Individuals fly at staggered heights, and rise and descend slightly, giving rise to one of their names, "wavie". The snow geese also fly in imperfect V's, which distinguishes them from canada geese. There is almost always a leader at the head of the formation, but this position changes frequently among the flock.

A migrating flock of snow geese will usually begin their trip at sunset, and may continue both day and night. Although many geese will stop at rest areas, some geese will make the entire flight from the breeding grounds to the wintering grounds of the Gulf Coast or Mexico, in one continuous flight. Snow geese have been known to fly as long as 70 hours and 1,700 miles in continuous flight.

For the geese that do stop along the way, one of the first places they rest, after leaving Canada, is Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge, along with Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge, are located in north-western North Dakota. The birds will spend from several days to many weeks at these refuges, until bad weather drives them on. From this point, the geese will travel to Devils Lake Wetland Management District in east-central North Dakota, and then on to Sand Lake in northern South Dakota. As food becomes scarce and the weather gets increasingly colder, the geese will move farther and farther south.

The next stopover is DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge. The snow geese begin to arrive at DeSoto in mid October, at the earliest. Their numbers usually build up slowly and the maximum number is on the refuge in mid to late November. Since 1964, when the refuge began counting geese, the average date the peak number of geese occurred was November 19th. The largest concentration of snows occurred 1995, with over 800,000 birds.

The snow geese will stay at DeSoto Refuge for as long as the weather permits. On a typical day the geese will leave DeSoto Lake at, or before, sunrise. They will either fly onto refuge fields to feed on waste grain or they will leave the refuge to feed. Geese have been followed leaving the refuge and have flown over 250 miles to find food. If the geese are feeding close to the refuge, they may come back to the refuge around 10:00 a.m. to rest on the lake and leave again around 2:00 p.m. to feed. At sundown the geese will return to the lake, where they are safe from predators, to spend the night.

When the geese leave DeSoto Refuge they then move down to Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, 150 miles south of DeSoto in northwestern Missouri. And from here they will stop at other lakes along the way to their wintering ground along the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana.

The snow geese will spend the winter feeding in the rice on the coastal marshes in the region from the Mississippi Delta to Corpus Christi, Texas. The geese also feed heavily on the stubble in the rice fields of Louisiana and Texas.

In the spring the snow geese will start back for their arctic breeding grounds. The geese travel north along different paths than in the fall. They also are in more of a rush, tending to bypass stopover areas that they rested at in the fall. Few geese are seen at DeSoto Refuge during the spring migration.