Subject: Re: Greater White-fronted Goose (GWFG)
Date: Sep 5 11:20:13 1995
From: Eugene Hunn - hunn at u.washington.edu


David Fix used to report large groups migrating over the south central
Oregon Cascades. So maybe a common route is down the outer coast to sw
Washington, over to the Willamette (a path followed by Sandhill Cranes),
down the Willamette to its head, then se across the Cascades to Klamath,
then on to C. California?

Gene Hunn.

On Fri, 1 Sep 1995, Jon Anderson wrote:

> 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
>
>