{"id":137321,"date":"2026-03-13T12:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T12:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/137321\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T12:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T12:24:09","slug":"bird-watchers-flock-to-pennsylvania-to-see-migrating-snow-geese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/137321\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird watchers flock to Pennsylvania to see migrating snow geese"},"content":{"rendered":"

KLEINFELTERSVILLE, Pa. (AP) \u2014 A few dozen birdwatchers gathered in the predawn darkness to wait for the moment when thousands of migrating snow geese stopped honking and preening to suddenly take flight from a Pennsylvania reservoir.<\/p>\n

The mesmerizing display, about an hour after sunrise, was over almost as soon as it began. The birds circled a few times and then headed out to neighboring farm fields, seeking unharvested grains and other sustenance on their epic annual spring flight<\/a> northward into New York state and Quebec.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Snow<\/p>\n

Snow geese take off to resume their northern migration after a stopover at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

Snow geese take off to resume their northern migration after a stopover at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

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\"Pairs<\/p>\n

\n Pairs of tundra swans (larger birds) and Canada geese fly over the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)\n <\/p>\n

Pairs of tundra swans (larger birds) and Canada geese fly over the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

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\"Amish<\/p>\n

\n Amish birders focus their binoculars on waterfowl at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)\n <\/p>\n

Amish birders focus their binoculars on waterfowl at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

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The Pennsylvania reservoir was built a half-century ago to attract waterfowl and over the years the gaggle has grown. Pennsylvania Game Commission environmental education specialist Payton Miller described it as a raucous bird tornado that lifts off the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll it takes is for me to come out here on a really nice morning where there\u2019s a huge morning flight and I\u2019m kind of reminded how awesome it is to see such a large number of such a beautiful bird,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI never get sick of it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Among those taking it all in was Adrian Binns, a safari guide from Paoli, Pennsylvania, who went to the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area for \u201cthe whole enjoyment of seeing something you don\u2019t see every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snow geese have been arriving in growing numbers at the 6,300-acre (25 square kilometers) Middle Creek property since the late 1990s. At this time of year, they have just spent months along the Atlantic coast, from New Jersey south to the Carolinas, with many of them overwintering on the Delmarva Peninsula that forms the Chesapeake Bay.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Snow<\/p>\n

Snow geese take to the sky at sunrise after a stopover at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

Snow geese take to the sky at sunrise after a stopover at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

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___<\/p>\n

See the full AP photo gallery by photographer Robert F. Bukaty of snow geese at Middle Creek here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t stay long at Middle Creek \u2014 it\u2019s just a way station on their journey to summer breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic and western Greenland. But for a few short weeks they are the main attraction at Middle Creek, which draws about 150,000 visitors annually \u2014 including about a thousand hunters. <\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania Game Commission, which owns Middle Creek, says about 100,000 snow geese were roosting there on the busiest day last year, on par with recent peak activity but below the single-day record of about 200,000 on Feb. 21, 2018. <\/p>\n

Snow geese are doing well, but their large numbers have come with a cost. According to a 2017 study published by Springer Nature, greater snow geese grew in population from about 3,000 in the early 20th century to some 700,000 by the 1990s. By some estimates, there are about a million of the birds now \u2014 along with maybe 10 million of lesser snow geese, which are smaller \u2014 that also breed in the Arctic.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Snow<\/p>\n

Snow geese resume their annual northern migration after a stopover at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

Snow geese resume their annual northern migration after a stopover at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

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\"Tundra<\/p>\n

\n Tundra swans and other waterfowl gather on a manmade reservoir at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area for a stopover, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)\n <\/p>\n

Tundra swans and other waterfowl gather on a manmade reservoir at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area for a stopover, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

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\"Snow<\/p>\n

\n Snow geese take off from a reservoir at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)\n <\/p>\n

Snow geese take off from a reservoir at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

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The number of migrating tundra swans at Middle Creek, while far lower, has also increased over time, from a dozen or so in the mid-1970s to 5,000 or more in recent years. Middle Creek birders have also identified more than 280 bird species on the site, among them bald eagles, northern harriers, ospreys and owls. <\/p>\n

As snow geese numbers have boomed in recent decades, wildlife officials in the U.S. and Canada have navigated a balancing act<\/a> involving hunting regulations, concerns about crop damage, shifts in snow geese migration and changes to overwintering patterns. Environmental damage from overgrazing in the Arctic has led experts to conclude the birds are overabundant.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The serrated edges of a snow goose\u2019s bill helps it grip the plants it eats, near the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

The serrated edges of a snow goose\u2019s bill helps it grip the plants it eats, near the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

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David M. Bird, a McGill University wildlife biology professor, described the population as \u201cprobably one of the biggest conservation problems facing wildlife biologists in North America today.\u201d Snow geese feed by pulling up plants by the roots, which damages habitats for themselves, various birds and other kinds of wildlife.<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania Game Commission reported recently that avian influenza viruses<\/a>, present in the state since 2022, continue to circulate among the state\u2019s wild birds. The game agency asked for the public\u2019s help in reporting sick or dead wild birds and reported that about 2,000 wild bird carcasses \u2014 mostly snow geese \u2014 had to be removed from a quarry a few miles north of Bethlehem in December and January. <\/p>\n

Bird said that for nature lovers, snow geese can be a delight but for farmers, they\u2019re a pest. For hunters, they\u2019re food but for animal rights advocates, they\u2019re a species that needs protection, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you are a paid professional wildlife manager at a municipal, state or federal level whose challenging job is to try to please all of the aforementioned parties, then you will undoubtedly experience many sleepless nights in the fall when the geese arrive,\u201d Bird said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A flock of snow geese arrives to spend the night at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

A flock of snow geese arrives to spend the night at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\"Early-rising<\/p>\n

Early-rising birders await sunrise at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

Early-rising birders await sunrise at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

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Read More<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KLEINFELTERSVILLE, Pa. (AP) \u2014 A few dozen birdwatchers gathered in the predawn darkness to wait for the moment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[63224,2600,44755,5781,5535,63225,33587,38,837,4664,4663,32669,915,237,1828,40,63227,28,30,29,63226,8039,44,7423,5531],"class_list":["post-137321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-adrian-binns","tag-animals","tag-arctic","tag-climate","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-david-m-bird","tag-geese","tag-general-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-maryland","tag-md-state-wire","tag-nc-state-wire","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-north-carolina","tag-pa-state-wire","tag-payton-miller","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-robert-f-bukaty","tag-science","tag-u-s-news","tag-virginia","tag-zoology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}