Flocks of snow geese have been passing over central Missouri for a week now and I observed several more at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area yesterday afternoon. As on my visit the previous week, an excellent variety of ducks and raptors were also encountered and, following a trend in recent years, a squadron of American white pelicans was already visiting the refuge.
Then, about 2 PM, a large flock of greater white-fronted geese arrived from the south, the first that I have seen this season. After circling the floodplain refuge for twenty minutes or so, they settled down in a shallow lake surrounded by marsh and tall grasses; there they joined a flock of northern pintails, a handful of snow geese and a mix of other puddle ducks. They were soon followed by two more flocks of white-fronts which, having spotted their cohorts, were less skittish about dropping into the sheltered marsh.
Greater white-fronted geese breed on the Arctic tundra across Alaska and Canada and winter on crop fields and coastal marshes from southern California to Louisiana, including northern Mexico; migrations are generally west of the Mississippi Valley though a Greenland population of white-fronted geese may winter along the Atlantic Coast. Their spring migration through Missouri usually peaks from late February into early March and yesterday's flocks were the vanguard of what has become an annual spectacle in our State; indeed, the number of greater white-fronts is increasing in North America and massive flocks may be encountered along the Missouri River Valley.
