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USGS Western Ecological Research Center

Tracking the Spring Migration of Snow Geese from the Desert to the Tundra using Satellite Radio Telemetry
Snow Geese New Mexico and northern Mexico are the winter home for a population of lesser snow goose (Chen c. caerulescens) that nests in the western Canadian Arctic. Snow geese breed from late May to mid August, but they leave these areas and spend more than half the year on their migration to-and-from warmer wintering areas. During spring migration, these snow geese fly more than 3,100 miles from the desert to the tundra.
To learn more about their long spring migration, the Biological Resources Division and the National Audubon Society headed up a cooperative education program called Wild Wings, Heading North. The project tracked ten snowgeese, captured in November and fitted with satellite radios at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. The 3,100 mile spring migrations spanned five months (February to June). The Wild Wings website included maps and data about the birds' locations, weather information, descriptions of geographic and cultural areas along their route, and a field journal of observations.

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Last update: January 29 2010