Snow Geese - Winter Migration Stopover in Pleasant Grove

The lesser snow goose (Anser caerulescens caerulescens) breeds in the Arctic tundra, and each year migrates on about a 3,000-mile journey to winter in the temperate climates of California and Mexico, then returns to its northern breeding grounds in late winter or early spring. In California, we see two migrating populations, the western Arctic population and the Wrengel Island population, make their way along the Pacific Flyway. During this long migration, like all migrating waterfowl, the geese pick "rest stops" along their route--and California's Central Valley is extremely important for providing such stops with ample forage to fuel the rest of their journey. It is also where the Wrengel Island population of snow goose makes its wintering home. The Central Valley is a very threatened habitat for migrating geese. Most of the natural wetlands in California have been converted to urban or agricultural development. Wildlife-friendly agriculture and managed seasonal wetlands typically found in wildlife refuges have become the substitute for stopover sites, where food is subsidized with waste grains and fallow corn stubble, and water is manually pumped in for appropriate flooding. However, these sites may also be threatened by lack of available water, due to California's severe drought. 

When snow geese are seen at a migration stopover or on a wintering ground, they are sometimes seen as blankets of white flocks numbering in the thousands. Mixed into these flocks are the similar looking Ross' geese, which have an overlapping distribution and migration route with the lessers. It's very difficult to tell the species apart, and in some cases flocks contain hybrids between the two. 

People come from all over to see these amazingly large flocks of geese, and festivals are organized around the phenomenon, such as the annual snow goose festival that takes place in Chico, California. While that sounds like a few days loaded with fun, I didn't need to attend such an event to see the migrating geese. All I needed to do was be a good daughter and offer to help my parents, who live in Magalia, California, haul large piles of pine needles off of their property. When I travel, I generally like to avoid crowded highways and freeways and take the scenic routes that are a bit off the beaten path. Between the busy highways of State-Route 99 and State-Route 160, from the Sacramento area to Marysville, is a very pleasant ride through the agricultural fields along Pleasant Grove Road, which we access from Baseline-Riego Road out of Roseville. Just north of the little community of Pleasant Grove and the road to Nicolaus, we and a few other motorists came to a dead stop at the sight of the enormous flock of snow geese foraging in one of the fields. The numbers were undoubtedly in the thousands, the calls were thunderous, and the nearly synchronized lifts from the ground when the geese were spooked painted the sky with strokes of black and white emerging from the solid white base of roosting birds on the ground. 

Though it made us slightly late for pine-needle duty, we managed to get a couple of photographs and a little bit of video. Seeing is believing, but it was really one of those "you had to be there" moments. This five-minute sidetrack certainly whetted the appetite for spending time at one of those week-long festivals. 

Flight Over the Delta

It's one thing to stare at satellite imagery on Google Earth or  a GIS map and another to look at the landscape from the air. Not as high as a commercial jet and not so low that I can't get a good birds-eye view--but from a perfect height. I spent a February day in a 4-seat Cessna plane to get a general survey of the land I am working to help conserve: California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

I could call it a perk from working for the State or work to get a good solid view of the habitat that is there and that is not there. So  two of my colleagues and I met the pilot at South Sacramento's Executive Airport, and we took flight. I had an eye out for riparian habitat for rare plants and wildlife, which exists only in narrow strips of trees along waterways in the Delta. Instead I saw far more vineyards and orchards that don't provide habitat for any species. But it was a beautiful day and not the time to be depressed about lack of habitat. I had never taken a flight like this before and it was quite exciting.

The sun was mostly out, but the central and southern end of the Delta were completely fogged in. Flying over Suisun Marsh was off limits because it was within the radius of President Obama's flight path from San Francisco. Figuring out where I was geographically from the plane was a little challenging, but with help from the pilot and later from the iPhoto information panel placing pins on the photo/video site location based on the iPhone's GPS location service, I can share some photos and video that will chronicle a bit part of the journey.

We started by following the course of the Sacramento River south, and flew over Liberty Island and the Calhoun Cut and Cache Slough area. Then we cut east to fly over the Cosumnes River Preserve, where all the nice big blocks of beautiful, thick-canopy riparian habitat does exist, and then back west over the Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. Then we flew over the Yolo Bypass, catching views of the City of Sacramento, the deep water ship channel, the Sacramento River, and some vernal pool wetlands. Next we headed north over the northern part of the Yolo Bypass and Fremont Weir, and followed parts of the Sacramento River in the southern edge of the Sacramento Valley. My colleague and I wanted to see the vast acreages of vernal pool grassland east of Sacramento and it was an amazing sight from the air. This kind of habitat is also lacking in the Delta, but we hope more will be created or restored. With our Delta surveillance duty more or less done (i.e, requesting to fly over certain locations we refer to many times in our work), our pilot decided to take us on a little detour over the Sierra Nevada foothills, northeast of Sacramento. We toured over Folsom Lake and a bit of the American River. It was good to see the water level in Folsom Lake was a little higher than during the devastating low during the most severe part of California's drought. Our two hours were up, so we  flew over the greater Sacramento urban areas back to the airport.

Everyone told me to take Dramamine; I might get sick. So I took it. The ride was almost as smooth as a jet plane and I didn't need it. Going back to work after the flight was the bigger challenge because I was so drowsy, I could barely keep my eyes open to look at my computer screen.

Cosumnes River Preserve

Following is an excerpt of my photo and video log of our flight. As it was my first time trying to take video with an iPhone 6 Plus from a plane, I can't vouch for the quality of the videography, especially where the wing or other parts of the plane, or a refection in the window, obscured part of the view. OK, so I'm not ready to shoot scenes for a BBC-style documentary yet. But it's a start.

Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge near Elk Grove, CA

Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area - A lot of wetlands for birds

Sacramento and the Deep Water Ship Channel as seen from the Yolo Bypass

Vernal pool wetland in Yolo Bypass

Foothills east of Sacramento, near Sloughhouse

Folsom Lake -- with water!

Now for the videos:

North Delta, Sacramento River, near Clarksburg

 Sacramento Valley - Nicolaus to Woodland

Sacramento River in the Sacramento Valley

Vernal pools of the Yolo Bypass