Trumpeter_Swans.jpg
Posted February 17, 2015
Trumpeter swans take off from Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, which is next door to the park. Swans are larger than snow geese, and do not have black wing tips. Tom Uhlenbrock/Missouri State Parks

A Whirling White Tornado at Big Lake

By Tom Uhlenbrock
Missouri State Parks


An estimated 500,000 migrating snow geese visited Big Lake State Park in northwest Missouri this winter. Tom Uhlenbrock/Missouri State Parks
CRAIG, Mo. – Russell Burge called to say he had been a tad off on his estimate of the snow geese visiting Big Lake State Park in the northwest corner of Missouri this winter.

Burge is the natural resource manager of the park, which is about 45 miles northwest of St. Joseph. On my visit a few days earlier, he had “guess-estimated” there were 350,000 snow geese, with 82 hungry bald eagles waiting nearby in the tall cottonwoods lining the lake.

“The Missouri Department of Conservation bird counters are here today,” he said in his follow-up phone call. “I was a little low; they estimate 500,000 snow geese.”

The 125-acre park is on the east side of Big Lake, which is an oxbow lake left behind when the Missouri River shifted its course three miles to the west a century or so ago. At 625 acres, it is the largest oxbow lake in Missouri.

The state park is known as a great camping spot in summer. But in winter, it features one of Missouri’s top displays of migrating waterfowl. The state park also includes a 300-acre marsh, a rare remnant of natural wetlands that draws species of birds on its own.

North American snow geese, which are medium-sized white geese with black wing tips, breed in summer on Canadian and Alaskan tundra. They migrate south in the winter along the Central Flyway, which begins in the Arctic, follows the Missouri River across the Great Plains and heads through Missouri, where it meets the Mississippi Flyway at St. Louis.

Millions of snow geese use the Central Flyway in their spring and fall migrations, which may take them as far south as Texas and Mexico.

From high in the air, Big Lake and its surrounding farm fields look like an inviting pit stop to a weary bird. The invitation is made more attractive by the presence of the next-door neighbor, Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge. Hunting is not allowed in the state park; Squaw Creek has two managed deer hunts a year.

“Most farmers went to no till, which leaves a lot of debris in the fields,” Burge said. “The geese like to shovel through it, get their beaks dirty, then come get a drink and wash everything off in the lake.

“The eagles follow the snow goose migration. When they get tired of eating goose, they eat a fish.”

Cries like Circling Warriors



Trumpeter swans take off from Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, which is next door to the park. Swans are larger than snow geese, and do not have black wing tips. Tom Uhlenbrock/Missouri State Parks
Missouri state parks that are on major rivers and large manmade lakes attract migrating geese and ducks, but the massive numbers of snow geese make Big Lake a special place.

“Depending on the weather, they show up in early November,” Burge said. “They’ll stay around into December, again according to the weather. It depends on how far south the snow goes.

“They first did a count a couple of years ago and estimated 250,000. This year is the largest number we’ve ever had.”

One of the great wildlife spectacles in Missouri in winter is the rising of the snow geese from the misty lake each morning in a whirling white tornado. The eagles hang around to feed on the geese that didn’t make it through the frigid night.

Unlike the monotone honking of a formation of Canada geese, the sound created by the masses of snow geese is reminiscent of the shrill cries of Indian warriors circling a wagon train in an old Western movie.

“It’s really a hard sound to describe, but that’s pretty close,” Burge said.

A Sky Solid with Birds



Snow geese breed in the Arctic in summer, and migrate south as far as Texas and Mexico in winter. Tom Uhlenbrock/Missouri State Parks
After a cross-state drive, I arrived at Big Lake the next morning and found a small gathering of snow geese on the lake just outside Burge’s office in the park.

“They’re out feeding in the fields,” he said. “Come back in a couple of hours.”

The park is on about a mile of shore, with private residences lining the rest of the lake. Many are weekend homes, and I walked out onto a dock near the snow geese and hunkered down with camera gear.

After a short time, I looked over my shoulder and saw V-formations of snow geese lined up in the sky to the north and coming in for a landing on the water, like jetfighters approaching an aircraft carrier.

For the next hour, they splashed down, feet first, until the lake was covered with a floating mass of white feathers.

When my fingers got too cold for photography, I began to pack my gear and depart, disturbing thousands of geese near the dock. They took off and the sky above me was solid with birds. They circled in waves, creating a cacophony of sound, before landing on the far side again to huddle with the masses.

Snow geese are said to be over-populating their nesting habitat up north, possibly because of warming conditions in their Arctic breeding grounds. But Burge noted that how many show up each winter at the park is up to nature.

Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge has a 10-mile auto tour through its 3,400 acres of wetlands and was host to various ducks, Canada geese, plenty of eagles and a gathering of trumpeter swans, but no snow geese.

“Squaw Creek used to have snow geese, but didn’t have any this year,” Burge said. “You never know where they will be from year to year.”

“But I do know we’ll have eagles. I’ve been here 30 years, and I always remember seeing eagles. As long as the water is open, and the lake’s not frozen.”

For more information, visit MoStateParks.com
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