Al Hansen
Well-known member
Al - Thank you for the wonderful photo's. They are much appreciated. I'm surprised by the low number of Blues. I spent much of my miss spent youth, and middle age, on a quest for Greater & Lesser Snows, and Ross. Time well spent! From my experience, the older the Ross, the more "warty protuberances" at the base of the bill. The print Canadian Gold, by Michael Sieve, is on the wall in my Man Room. Not one day goes by without me looking at it, and reliving a flood of memories. Plus some damn fine Snow Goose Sandwiches. Why some call them Sky Carp baffles the hell outta me, as they are one fine bird.
Thanks for taking the time to write what you did, Vince. Michael Sieve is a fantastic artist. I, in particular, have enjoyed his work with the Dall and Bighorn sheep.
As for some who have carelessly used that coined phrase, "Flying Carp", I can only feel sorry for them. I remember as a kid back in the middle 50s being fortunate enough to crawl through a farmers stubble field trying to get close enough for a shot at some resting snows that would occasionally come into our area of western Minnesota. One day I took 3 gorgeous snow geese and thought I had the world by the tail! As for those who make fun of these magnificent creatures, I can only hope that some day they might see them in a different light. Pesonally, I think it is imperative that when you hunt, that whatever you kill, you should be thankful for it.
I have mentioned this on the site before. My waterfowl biologist friend told me one day when we were teal hunting, that if he ever had the right to distribute a doctorate degree to any one specie of waterfowl, it would be the snow goose.
Rather interesting that this goose knows how to leap frog from one national wildlife refuge to the next when migrating south. Funny how they know how to spiral upwards when leaving a refuge and then when getting to the next one, they spiral down into the confines of safety!
Al