Soon after going to bed last evening, I was awakened by the distinctive calls of snow geese as they passed over Columbia. Catching a ride on cold, northern winds behind yesterday's storm, they are headed for coastal marshlands on the Gulf Coast and will likely stop to rest and refuel along the Missouri, Arkansas or Mississippi Rivers en route.
The first snows of autumn are always an inspiring sight (or sound) and I begin watching for them during the first week of November. Having bred and summered on the Arctic tundra, they use several staging areas on their way to southern marshlands, some of which are in Missouri; indeed, Squaw Creek NWR, on the northwest border of our State, is one of the best sites in North America to observe snow geese, which often peak from 300-500 thousand between late November and mid December.
Fortunately, those of us in central Missouri are treated to the spectacle of snow geese migrations in both late autumn and late winter (February to March). The opportunity to observe and listen to these hardy travelers has been the natural highlight of my years in Missouri and they never fail to stir my soul. Their high-pitched clamour is, for me, both the call of the wild and the voice of freedom.
