prepare for takeoff

MONTANA’S GREAT SNOW GOOSE MIGRATION

It’s the crack of dawn in mid-March. Snow still blankets the countryside, and ice forms a crust on an appropriately named Freezeout Lake. The sun is rising slower than the steam from the water, as the crowd of onlookers swells.

But no matter how many devoted bird-watchers gather to witness at the shoreline on this Montana spring day, their numbers will certainly be eclipsed by the hundreds of thousands of geese that spontaneously descend, then lift off, the lake’s surface—all in unrehearsed unison each day. It’s nothing short of epic.

It’s Montana’s annual snow geese migration: the first stop of an arduous journey that plays out each year, beginning with a flight from central California and ending on arctic coastline breeding grounds in the far north tundra of North America.

The 150 miles through the Blackfoot Valley along its namesake river, and over a heavily timbered and rugged Rogers Pass, is a dramatic drive made ever more so by the first breathtaking glimpse of the final destination: stark, golden plains of wheat and barley, hemmed by the enormous jagged granite peaks of the Rocky Mountain Front.

Come spring, it’s a nonstop 18-hour flight of 600 miles across California’s Central Valley. This annual migration of the snow goose is a sight so astounding, it can be overwhelming. Each of these geese spends about four to five days here before they continue on to the Arctic to carry out breeding. Like other waterfowl such as penguins, pairs mate for life and produce two to six eggs per year.

But it isn’t just snow geese that use Freezeout Lake. It’s also trumpeter swans, goldeneye, pintail ducks and Canadian geese, to name a few.

Over the course of about two weeks, groups of geese will engage in a cycle of feast and rest in this premier wetland/prairie complex, raiding grain fields morning and night. At midday, they blast up from surrounding fields in a deafening flap and move to the lake to lounge. The din of collective wing flaps and nonstop honking can be likened to a rock concert of waterfowl.

Over the course of about a two-week season, up to one million birds use this lake during their total 3,000-mile migration to arctic breeding grounds northeast of Russia, only to return south a few months later.

Freezeout Lake Wildlife Management says that it isn’t unusual to see groups of up to 300,000 snow geese at one time congregate here, gorging and resting for the longer flight ahead. Birds settle for the night on the lake, then ascend to feed on grain in neighboring fields in Montana’s famed Golden Triangle.

According to the United States Geological Survey, “the Snow Goose is a circumpolar species and one of the most abundant in the world.” Each year, Freezeout Lake is a sought-out stopover, making it integral to the entire population that migrates over the western United States.

From Hazard To Habitat

Freezeout Lake was once a cesspool of agricultural waste products owing to drainage issues and pesticides. The water was said to have been so toxic that numerous birds would die each year from botulism and exposure to other toxins, which ultimately hampered migration and eventual breeding ground efforts in the North.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation began studying this area in the mid-1980s for water quality, irrigation issues and bottom sediment. They found deadly bacteria, arsenic and other chemicals. Reclamation of water and structural safeguards have prevented further contamination and restored it as an important waterfowl habitat for snow geese and other species.