Today we look at the Juvenile Lesser Snow Goose!
These, pictured, are apparently “blue-phase” snow geese, as “white-phase” snow geese will have the typical orange feet and bill.
Apparently we don’t have Greater Snow Geese in this neck of the woods, but north of Hudson’s Bay is where you can find the Greater of the Snow Geese. Lesser Snow guess are probably the most abundant goose in Canada, preferring very large groups to hang out and migrate, upwards of 2000 pairs per square kilometre! Jammed in! There are over 5 million in Canada alone!!
It can take up to 8 weeks for a sno goose to take a first flight, in that time they are always walking with documented cases of one day old hatchlings walking 30 km in a day! Plus adults moult once a year losing their flight feathers and growing more and this can take over a week.
When full grown, wingspan can be up to 3 feet and the can weigh 6-9 lbs. These birds mate for life, and make a sound similar to a high pitch bark.
They are 100% vegetarian eating grasses and roots, which are high in protein, and because their diet is entirely from digging in the dirt, they often have orange face feathers because of the amount of iron they come in contact with.
The ones we see here will likely migrate all the way to Mexico… YEARLY! What a hell of a commute! hahah
