Pennsylvania Game News - February 2012 - 23

Binder says you can come to the Middle Creek area and try your hand at snow goose hunting on your own, but opportunities are limited. One way would entail securing a blind permit for Canada goose season, hoping an early snow goose wanders north. Sometimes, while Canada goose season is still open and the blinds are operational, there may be some snow geese around, but few are taken from the blinds here. Perhaps the blinds are too close to the roosting lake, because it seems snow geese want to fly off somewhere once they get up. One reason the blinds at Middle Creek are not currently opened specifically for snow geese is that it is believed that relatively few would be taken, and disturbance to other migrating waterfowl must be taken into consideration. Or, you can hunt by pass shooting — just standing and waiting, hoping geese fly over, although hunters see only marginal success this way. The other option is to knock on local farmers’ doors, asking permission to hunt their fields. Some already lease their land, but others are open to friendly, polite, ethical hunters. If the land is not leased, farmers may welcome hunters in hopes of keeping large flocks of hungry snow geese out of their fields. By the very end of March, most of the great numbers of snow geese will have made their way north to the St. Lawrence Seaway. But the hunting season will extend through April 27 with a daily bag limit of 25 geese per day. When our day draws to a close, we go down to the lake where the swans congregate and wait for the sun to set and the huge flocks of geese to return. We scan the heavens, not knowing what portion will serve as their entrance. Excitedly, we spot the first few flocks of geese and eagerly watch their dynamic formations fill the

sky. Tiny specks, like endless layers of pepper flakes shaken across the sky, materialize into ascending bird shapes. They swarm and fly in circles, looking for a good patch of water for landing. And they are busy talking. Binder says the migrant geese communicate to each other often, especially as they take off and land. All of that chatter is extraordinary and quite a contrast to the local Canada geese who reside in quiet familiarity with the land. The snow geese arrive at Middle Creek as early as late January, but your best bet to see them is from the last two weeks in February to the first two weeks in March, provided that there is not much snow on the ground and not much ice on the lake. Conditions are what drives this phenomenon; more snow and ice means less birds, less snow and ice means more birds during their migration time frame. For waterfowl viewing, you can also expect to find flocks of up to 10,000 or more tundra swans, (whistling swans) with their 7-foot wingspans and beautiful musical voices. Middle Creek also hosts about up to 10,000 migrating Canada geese, and a sizeable number of mallards and black ducks, along with a host of other duck species. A resident pair of nesting eagles has also been known to put on a show, taking the occasional snow goose. As the snow geese settle in for the evening, we drive home still tracking the oncoming geese heading for rest and shelter at Middle Creek. Silhouetted against the fading orange sky, the last snow geese straggle in, bringing down the final curtain of the day. The Arctic is still a long flight away. 

FEBRUARY 2012

Pennsylvania Game News - February 2012

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