The Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area serves as a key stopover for snow geese, which have been arriving in growing numbers since the late 1990s. The 6,300-acre area, built a half-century ago to attract waterfowl, sees its gaggle of waterfowl expand over the years. At this time of year, the snow geese have just spent months along the Atlantic coast from New Jersey to the Carolinas, with many overwintering on the Delmarva Peninsula. Middle Creek is just a way station on their journey to summer breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic and western Greenland. For a few short weeks, the snow geese are the main attraction at Middle Creek, which draws about 150,000 visitors annually, including about a thousand hunters. The Pennsylvania Game Commission, which owns Middle Creek, said about 100,000 snow geese were roosting there on the busiest day last year. That peak activity is on par with recent peaks but below the single-day record of about 200,000 on February 21, 2018. Pennsylvania Game Commission environmental education specialist Payton Miller described the geese flight as a raucous bird tornado that lifts off the water, while Adrian Binns, a safari guide from Paoli, Pennsylvania, went to the area for the enjoyment of seeing something you don't see every day.
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 greater snow geese now, along with maybe 10 million lesser snow geese, which are smaller and also breed in the Arctic. As snow geese numbers have boomed in recent decades, wildlife officials in the U.S. and Canada have navigated a balancing act involving hunting regulations and concerns about crops.
All it takes is for me to come out here on a really nice morning where there’s a huge morning flight and I’m kind of reminded how awesome it is to see such a large number of such a beautiful bird. I never get sick of it.
Other bird species contribute to the broader ecological context at Middle Creek. The number of migrating tundra swans has increased over time, from a dozen or so in the mid-1970s to 5,000 or more in recent years. Birders have identified more than 280 bird species on the site, including bald eagles, northern harriers, ospreys, and owls. The exact number of snow geese currently at Middle Creek during this migration event and the specific timeframe are not confirmed.
The whole enjoyment of seeing something you don't see every day.