Snow Goose

On 7 November  2019,  Erika and I photographed an immature Snow Goose at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. I an surprised that this is the only Snow Goose we have listed this fall. The species is an abundant winter visitor in scattered locations in western and southern North America. Up to 40,000 have been censused just north of Seattle and many winter in northwestern Oregon and in California. You might think that Snow Geese would be a common sight overhead as they head south. Almost all the Washington Snow Geese breed on Wrangel Island in the Chukchi Sea off northern Siberia (Wahl et al. 2005). These birds often have rusty-stained heads (a color that this bird is lacking).