The Naturalist By Todd Pusser

Snow Days

Nor th Carolin a’s g reat est wil dlife spect acl e

story a n d P ho to gr a Phs By todd P usser They appear like clockwork each November, arriving by the tens of thousands from their breeding grounds in the far north of Alaska and Canada, settling in for the winter in scattered locations across northeastern North Carolina, many in federal wildlife refuges created, in large part, for them and their kin. Possessing stark white feathers, weights of more than 5 pounds, and wings that stretch over 28 inches from tip to tip, snow geese are among our state’s most spectacular waterfowl. Aesthetics aside, what makes snow geese so remarkable is their tendency to form enormous flocks on their wintering grounds.

Containing as many as 40,0 0 0 indiv idua l birds, these cacopho nous flock s prov ide the state’s g reatest w ildlife spectacle and can be seen in many of our coasta l w ildlife ref uges such as MacK ay Island, Pea Island and L ake Mat tamuskeet. However, the largest flock s tend to agg regate in the vast fields and lakes of Pocosin L akes Nationa l Wildlife R ef uge in r ura l Ty rell Count y, which is exactly where I found myself one w inter’s day.

I had timed my ar r iva l for late af ter noon, just as the sun was star ting to dip in the br ight blue wester n sk y. Exper ience had taught me that the geese spend much of the day roosting in the sha llow waters

of the ref uge’s P ungo L ake, only to leave in unison in early evening to forage in nearby ag r icult ura l fields.

Tur ning dow n a ref uge dir t road, a nor ther n har r ier, a large, white-tailed hawk, arched g racef ully above a hedgerow that bordered a sha llow ir r igation ditch, its long w ings barely flapping in the gentle breeze as it at tentively searched the g rasses for an unsuspecting rodent or bird. Up a head in the road, a pair of white-tailed deer ambled into an immense field of cor n, their brow n bodies quietly disappear ing among the golden sta lk s.

Rounding a shar p bend in the road, I slow my car. Stretched out to my r ight, in a recently plowed field, are hundreds of t undra swans, their large white bodies aglow in the late af ter noon light. Like the snow geese I have come to see, they, too, are recent mig rants f rom the far Nor th.

Both the geese and swans are attracted to this area for the immense wetlands surrounded by fields of corn and soybeans, crops that provide a high-energ y food resource that sustains the gregarious flocks through the long winter days. T he ref uge allows local farmers to plant crops on its lands as par t of a cooperative farming program. Instead of paying the ref uge rent, farmers are encouraged to leave a por tion of their crop in the field for the migrator y waterfowl.

I put my car in park, roll dow n my w indow and t ur n of f the eng ine. Pointing a long telephoto lens in the swans’ direction, I f rame a sma ll g roup standing at at tention, caref ully monitor ing a predator y red-tailed hawk fly ing above the tree line at the far end of the field. Suddenly, I hear them, the roar of thousands of w ings launching simulta-

Toast

neously f rom the sur face of nearby P ungo L ake nearly a ha lf-mile away. Despite the distance, the booming voices of the snow geese echo through the trees and across the vast expanse of the soybean field.

Before long, immense V-shaped lines of geese approach, high up in the sk y f rom the east, and beg in to circle above the t undra swans. Great sw irling cur rents of snowwhite w ings, a ll beating in unison, descend, tor nado -like, to the g round just a hundred yards f rom my parked car. T heir sy nchro nous movements are provocative. No other water fowl are as g regar ious, and I mar vel at how the large birds fly so sk illf ully in such large agg regations. At no time do I see t wo birds so much as br ush w ing tips.

The geese snowstorm lasts for a f ull 20 minutes, and the open, plowed field, once a drab brown landscape of crop stubble, morphs into an enormous living white carpet f ull of frenetic energ y. The noise is deafening.

T here are few spots on the planet where one can w itness such a gather ing of anima ls, and it is remark able to think that a spectacle such as this occurs so close to home. Even more astounding, I have this phenomenon a ll to myself. Nar y another car is in sight.

A s the sun dips toward the wester n hor izon, late af ter noon light washes over the flock, casting a golden hue over the sea of white feathers. T he incessant chor us continues as the geese, mi xed among the ta ller t undra swans, eagerly gobble mouthf uls of nour ishment, pausing occasiona lly to crane their neck s upward look ing around for potentia l predators.

A f ter nearly an hour, the dark silhouet te of a flapping eagle appears just over the tree line a long the far cor ner of the field. T he entire flock instantly takes notice and, for just a split second, their honk ing and cack ling stops. T hen, blastof f ! T housands of birds launch simultaneously in a f ur ious explosion of flapping w ings.

T he flock r ises into the early evening sk y in a white shimmer ing wave and circles back toward the lake, leav ing nothing but a few scat tered feathers strew n across an empt y field, and silence. PS Naturalist and photographer Todd Pusser works to document the e xtraordinar y diversit y of life both near and far. His images can be found at www.ToddPusser.com.

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