It’s a great time for a wild goose chase. Insect-eaters are typically the first birds to skip town, migrating south. Seed-eaters linger a little longer. Waterfowl take their own sweet time.
As long as there is food in an ice-free pond, ducks and geese are happy to stay right here. Cold doesn’t bother them much, as anyone who has cooked a duck knows. They’ve got a fat layer of insulation that just won’t quit.
Goose-watching is like panning for gold. You’ve got to sift through a lot of sand to find a nugget. Canada geese are abundant. But there are sometimes strangers hiding among them. Many less common geese seem to be turning up this autumn, hiding in plain sight.
Snow geese appear regularly in Maine in autumn. They are abundant and extremely social, traveling and foraging in big flocks. They nest along the Arctic tundra edge clear across North America. In mid to late October, they migrate straight south, so most eastern Canadian breeders end up along the eastern seaboard. Central Canadian breeders winter along the Gulf coast. Western birds wait out the cold months along the Pacific.
Snow geese migrate at their leisure, stopping for long periods to feed on the sedges and tubers they love. There is so much of this food supply along the Saint Lawrence River above Quebec that the province started a Snow Goose Festival, appropriately named in French “Festival de l’Oie des Neiges.” Hundreds of thousands of snow geese pass through, most stopping off at Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Refuge.
These snow geese typically bypass Maine, choosing instead a route over Vermont, where they know their favorite food is waiting for them. Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area in Vermont is the core area to see hundreds of thousands at this time of year.
Next stop: Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Pennsylvania; then on to the coast, from Delaware to North Carolina.
Not surprising for an abundant species, some snow geese wander into Maine on their way south. They’ve been entertaining birders across the state. If encountered, take a second look. You might find a Ross’s goose. It strongly resembles a snow goose, though smaller and with a shorter bill.
Ross’s goose summers and winters in the central regions of North America. Vagrants in Maine are rare, but one popped up in Ellsworth a couple weeks ago. Another attracted a lot of attention in Bangor’s Maple Grove Cemetery three years ago.
A widespread species like the Canada goose typically has regional variation. In 2004, there were 11 recognized subspecies. That year, ornithologists decided the smallest subspecies was sufficiently different to declare the cackling goose as an official new species.
Cackling geese breed on the far northern edges of Canada and Alaska. In winter, they head south, mostly west of the Great Lakes. However, some wander. One turned up in Mars Hill Pond in Aroostook County a few weeks ago. Last Sunday, on a Maine Audubon-led field trip, seven birders enjoyed viewing a cackling goose at Arnold Brook Lake Recreation Area in Presque Isle.
That same field trip turned up a greater white-fronted goose at Lake Josephine in Easton. Greater white-fronted geese also breed in the far north, almost exclusively west of Hudson Bay. They winter west of the Mississippi all the way down to Louisiana. But a few visit Maine every autumn, so it’s not a surprise when one appears.
Pink-footed geese are a surprise. They breed on the far side of Greenland and winter in Northern Europe. In recent years, more have been visiting the eastern coast of North America. Those lucky Aroostook County birders turned one up at Lake Josephine. Besides Maine, there are currently pink-footed geese attracting attention in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Nova Scotia.
Perhaps the Holy Grail of goose-chasing is the barnacle goose. Its nesting range extends from Eastern Greenland to Siberia. However, any bird that can both fly and swim is not so shy about crossing water, and barnacle geese occasionally show up here. I enjoyed my first (and only) sighting in Houlton a few years ago. And, yes, I learned the pair was there, and scheduled a wild-goose chase to see them.
Barnacle geese are currently present in Québec and Nova Scotia. One was in New York in early October.
Birding in late autumn need not be dull. Songbirds may have headed for the tropics, but other birds have secretly taken their place. There are big flocks of Canada geese everywhere. Take a second look.
