Date: 9/26/25 2:29 pm From: Martha Jordan via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: [Tweeters] newest Audubon magazine snow goose article
For those who are members of National Audubon, you likely have the newest issue of the magazine in hand. It has a very informative article: The Great North American Goose Chase. It is about snow geese that breed in an area of northern Alaska (North Slope) and east across the Canadian western arctic (not the mid-Continent population). Well done article, except for one glaring error regarding Washington State's wintering snow geese. This error only applies to Washington State. Recent research has shown that the snow geese that winter in the Skagit Valley (and other areas of western WA) breed on Wrangel Island, north of Siberia: Russia. They are not the Western Arctic population. In eastern WA, the vast majority of those snow geese are also from Wrangel Island. A small percentage are Western Arctic population. So where do most of these geese go: the rest of the article is accurate, and you can always plan a trip to Chico, California for the Jan 22-23, 2026 Snow Goose Festival (1 million snow geese along with other waterfowl), a spectacular sight.
Even the Cornell Lab All About Birds website lacks any information on differentiating the Lesser Snow Goose from the Greater Snow Goose (sub-species) Both are lumped into: snow geese. Sad to see this educational opportunity missed. If you want more information on snow geese, contact me off-list. mj.cygnus at gmail.com
