Today is the Festival of the Snow Geese. 10 things you might not know about snow geese:
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The scientific name for a Snow goose is Anser caerulescens.
The snow goose is 27-33 inches long with a wingspread of about 54 inches. It weighs around 3.5-7 pounds.
The name derives from its White plumage. No surprises there. However, not all snow geese are white. There are some which have bluish-grey plumage except for their head, neck and tail tip. These are called Blue geese. It’s possible to tell when they are goslings which they will be when they grow up. The ‘blue’ types are Grey and the whites are Yellow.
Snow geese find mates when they are around two years old and form long term bonds. They don’t breed until their third year, however.
Their nests are shallow depressions on high ground lined with plant material and may be reused from year to year. The eggs are creamy white.
In the first few weeks of their lives, snow goose goslings may walk up to 50 miles with their parents from the nest to a more suitable brood-rearing area. After 42 to 50 days they can fly, but they remain with their parents until they are two to three years old.
Adults spend more than half the year migrating to and from their summer and winter habitats, which can be more than 3,000 mi (4,800 km) each way.
They eat a lot, in order to build up reserves for their long migrations. In winter, they feed 2-7 hours per day. The heavy serrations on their bill aren’t just there to make them look as if they are smiling. The serrations help them get nutrients from their plant based diet. They also poo a lot as passes through a snow goose’s digestive tract in just an hour or two, meaning 6-15 poos every hour.
The oldest Snow Goose on record, a blue morph, was shot in Idaho in 2020. It was 30 years, 8 months old and was originally banded in Arizona in 1990. Who knows how long it might have lived if someone hadn’t shot it.
While mostly found in Greenland, Arctic North America and Siberia, they do stop off in the UK sometimes. They don’t breed here, though, unless they’re captive birds which have escaped. A small group of them were even spotted in Hawaii once, in 2015, and spent 3-4 months there.
NEW!!
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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