Blue geese taking over????

[dakotashooter2]

Has anyone notice the prevalence of Blue geese on the central flyway. Seems like ten years ago blue geese made up about 5% of a mixed flock (snows & blues) Now the mix seems to be closerto 70-75% blues. Makes them harder to see in the fields. Quite a suprise when you spot a couple hundred snows from a distance only to find a flock of several thousand (those unseen blues) when you get close.

[the rifleman]

I saw several blues mixed with snows this Sept. when hunting in Alberta. They didn't seem to be the prevelant bird on the field, as there were more snows, then blues, but more numbers than I recall seeing in the past.

  I was hoping to set up in that field as there was a mess of specks, Canada, and mallards as well, but the rancher said the field had already been spoken for. Drat!  As it was I managed to find another field not far away, but all that we had come into it were Canada's. Ssill made for mighty fine shooting though! :grin:

[the rifleman]

I did some more research on those blues, and apparently they are snow geese! The plummage on the younger birds appears greyish blue, and on the "lesser snow" they may stay that way for at least a year. The "greater snow"  youngsters will turn white faster.

 The Canadian Wildlife Service, has a good websight that gives you the whole lowdown on these, and other waterfowl, and animals. A pretty good sight.

[Charlie G]

The Blue goose is a lesser snow goose.  There are 2 color phases white and blue.  The juvenilles of both color phases are gray.  The blue color phase of the lesser snow goose is more common in the east and virtually absent in the western flyways.  Biologist believe that they were completely separated until recently ( past couple hunderd years) and now their breeding grounds are over lapping.  The blue genes exhibit partial dominance so if one of the gooses parents was blue then all the babies will be a shade of the blue color phase.  It would then stand to reason that the more the two color phases interbreed the more blue geese there will be.  It isn't quite that simple since the geese mate for life and the selection of mates depends on the gooses parents, if the parents were both white then odds are that they will choose a white mate and the same applies if the gooses parents were both blue.  If you would like to learn more about the lesser snow goose you can email me and I will send a term paper on them that I wrote.