Greater White-Fronted Geese

The physics of snow melting, and more...

Greater white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons) in flight at the Llano Seco Unit of the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, south of Chico, California. Photo by Frank Schulenburg.

Wednesday morning I heard a flock of geese with a call that was a higher pitch than I was used to from Canada Geese. It turns out there were three flocks of Greater white-fronted geese.

They migrate north from February through May, so I am taking this as the first sign of spring!

I managed to take some video, but did a bad job zooming in. I always find it hard to find something when I zoom in, which you can see toward the end when I try to capture video of a large bird that took off. I’m unsure what the bird is, but I had heard eagles. You can hear the distinct call of the geese, and get an idea of the size of the flock. This group was following Cedar Creek to the northwest. Other flocks flew straight north.

Here is more information about them.

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Notice the moon on the right.

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There is so much beauty everywhere. This snow had melted down—just look at the remarkable patterns!

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Notice the line of organic matter in the left photo. Why does it line up like that? Look at the right photo, and you can see organic matter is everywhere, and a little ridge to the left. I’m wondering if as the snow melts, the organic matter is deposited much like a dam in a stream might form as branches and leaves flow downstream. Being larger, the organic matter clusters linearly?

You can see it around the boot prints, and even the deer footprint.

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As the snow melts we can see what I presume are vole runways or tunnels. I think they are amazing.

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Moles were busy too.

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Is this a beautiful purple fungus?

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And speaking of purple, I wonder what this plant is.

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"All my life I have risen regularly at four o’clock and have gone into the woods and talked with God. There he gives me my orders for the day. Alone there with things I love most I gather specimens and study the great lessons Nature is so eager to teach us all.” - George Washington Carver.

Indeed…

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If you enjoy Cedar Creek Nature Notes, I encourage you to subscribe to my friend Larry Stone’s “Listening to the Land.” It’s fantastic. Larry has forgotten more than I will ever know about our outdoor world.

For another glimpse of the wonders of the Iowa outdoors, Diane Porter’s My Gaia is another Substack I enjoy. It’s full of observations on nature and is ripe with wisdom.

And don’t miss Al Batt’s Substack at Al’s Substack. Al Batt of Hartland, Minnesota is a writer, speaker, storyteller, and humorist. Al writes humor and nature columns for many newspapers and does regular radio shows about nature. He writes several popular cartoon strips that are syndicated nationally and is the author of the book, "A Life Gone to the Birds." He is a columnist for "Bird Watcher’s Digest" and “Watching Backyard Birds,” and writes for several magazines and books.

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