Subject: [Tweeters] snow geese in eastern WA
Date: Tue Mar 17 22:12:58 PDT 2020
From: Martha Jordan - mj.cygnus at gmail.com

The past few years snow geese have been coming into eastern WA in ever
increasing numbers. It is a long story how they got to be here, but suffice
to say that this year the count is about 160,000 starting mostly in
mid-February when they move up from the just south of Boardman, OR.
They spread out between the tri-cities, going up the Snake/Columbia
confluence and into the irrigated crop circle areas where there is corn and
other waterfowl friendly forage.
This year the Wrangel Island breeding population produced a record 57%
juveniles. Some of these are in western WA and others in the east OR and WA
as well as the Central Valley area of California. It is highly likely that
next year we may see another 50,000 or so in eastern WA and a substantial
increase on the west side as well. The breeding grounds have now expanded
to include the North Slope of Alaska. While that group is currently "small"
it has a huge area to expand. Stay tuned for a potential snowgoosemageddon.

Martha Jordan
Everett, WA
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