Snowbirds

This week my friend Jessie and I snowshoed in Rocky Mountain National Park. Snow was scarce on the ground, and the wind scoured some areas bare, repeatedly forcing us to take our snowshoes off. Being too lazy to take them off and put them on every time we approached a snowdrift, we postholed (and fell) trying to navigate short but deep snow patches. Snowshoes really do work, as Jessie said. We saw many rabbit tracks as well as scat from small carnivores, but none of the animals themselves. Droppings had frozen in clumps, and urine had melted the snow, turning it into ice.

We saw birds that looked like a cross between Dark-eyed Juncos and female Mountain Bluebirds—dark heads and a small amount of blue on the wing. I might not believe my own eyes, but Jessie also saw a flash of what she called teal. The birds fed close to the ground as Juncos do and behaved boldly, not flying away as we approached. Further, Mountain Bluebirds don’t have dark heads and shouldn’t be here at this time of year, but American Robins shouldn’t be in Fargo, North Dakota, either, and there they were in December when Jessie visited her parents.

Some of my best observations come from family and friends. The Canada Goose, bane of many a golfer who has to deal with their invasion of the greens and copious amounts of droppings, constitutes, in Colorado at least, a common pest to many people, including drivers waiting for them to amble across the road and walkers subject to hisses and even attacks. (Although on a lighter side, see The Onion’s satire.) I’m among those who find them and their leavings irritating. On my behalf, the geese do signify a loss of habitat for other creatures, preferring “developed” expanses of suburban greens that include lawns and parks with open vistas, by definition areas that predators do not favor.

My husband, Greg, though, has described characteristics that may make Canada Geese more endearing to me, or at least more interesting. First, he noticed their moustaches—small bristles along their beaks. He has also noticed behavioral adaptations that can be seen in Canada Geese precisely because they are so big and so ubiquitous. Less visible birds that we don’t have as many chances to view share similar behaviors. I’m referring to the fact that the geese sit instead of standing while they graze when the temperature falls below about fifteen degrees. This makes sense in light of Dr. Roger Lederer’s assertion that birds reduce exposed surface area by sitting, which allows them to reduce body heat loss by 20-50%. When Canada Geese stand up, it’s a good day for those of us who like warmer weather!