ARE YOU READY FOR THE SNOWS?
Unlike most March snows, the arrival of snows at the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area - along the Lebanon/Lancaster county line - is one seasonal event thousands upon thousands of people await anxiously.
Of course, impending snow usually sends many Pennsylvanians scurrying for bread, milk and eggs. But Middle Creek's snows require different preparation. Namely, grabbing a pair of binoculars, a warm jacket, and packing a sandwich, because when snows are coming through, you get off the road, roll down the window and watch. It can be that mesmerizing and entertaining.
Ok, so what's this all about? Snows don't come and go, do they? Well, yes, they do. At Middle Creek, that is. What's unfolding here is the annual convergence of snow geese and tundra swans at Middle Creek.
About 80,000 snow geese currently are holding at Middle Creek and that number likely will grow - there are no guarantees - in coming weeks as warmer weather and longer daylight hours compel migratory waterfowl to pull their winter roots on the Chesapeake Bay and points south into the Carolinas to head north to breed and nest. Last year, in the second week of March, an estimated 180,000 snow geese congregated at Middle Creek, an important waterfowl staging area developed, managed and owned by the Game Commission.
"Those 180,000 snow geese were the largest number ever to be observed at Middle Creek," said Jim Binder, Game Commission Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area Land Manager. "The gathering of birds was no doubt related to a favorable combination of natural conditions and, of course, North America's unprecedented population of snow geese. The previous record was set in 1997, when 150,000 snows came.
"It's likely the continent has never had as many snow geese as it does now. So when you look upon them, recognize that their numbers are historic, exceedingly demanding on natural resources and agriculture, and, hopefully, temporary."
For more information, please visit the Pennsylvania Game Commission - State Wildlife Management Agency website:
http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?a=11&Q=173666