On Fri, 1 Sep 1995, Gates, Bryan wrote:

> Thanks to Harry Nehls for the information on GWFG migration. The next
> question, then, is: do these south-bound migrants tend to stay to the east of
> Vancouver Island (ie. over the Fraser River delta, Puget Sound, etc.) or do
> they somehow cross over to the outside coast of the Island and Olympic
> Peninsula?

Bryan,

I chased geese (five-plus subspecies of Canadas) all over the
mid-Willamette Valley in Oregon for a number of years. The white-fronts
would pass over in considerable numbers in early September, and the air
could be filled with their laughing calls. These birds are *high* in
the sky! from the perspective of a boy on the valley floor.

My memory is that they would tend to pass over the western foothills of
the Valley (i.e. Baskett Slough NWR) more 'heavily' than over the middle
of the Valley (i.e. Ankeny NWR). Any ex-Oregonians out there who can
report on the status for the white-fronts over the foothills of the old
Cascades? Also, I'm clueless about specklebellies' movements along the
Oregon Coast - maybe contact Range Bayer or Roy Lowe in Newport via
OBOL? Unless there's also a heavy movement along the coast, I would not
think it likely that the birds would move down the west side of Vanc.
Isl and Olympics, then cross over to Oregon's inland valleys??

Anyway, it is rare to have any of these flocks settle down anywhere in
the mid-Willamette Valley. A very few will winter with the flocks of
Canadas at the several goose concentration areas, but it is a handful.

As these geese are for the most part heading for the central valley of
California, and since quite a few seem to keg up at times in the Klamath
Basin of S Oreg and N Calif, I assume that there might be some ridgetops
in southern Oregon where a person could do a "goose watch" rather than a
hawk watch.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, WA
anderjda at dfw.wa.gov