x
Breaking News
More () »

A massive snow goose migration makes its annual stop near Chico | Bartell's Backroads

Bird watchers are flocking to the Snow Goose Festival of the Pacific Flyway to see some of the estimated five million geese that will make the Sacramento Valley their winter home.

CHICO, California — A spectacular air show takes place during third week of January. It's the annual Snow Goose Festival in Chico. 

More than 5 million geese from the Bering Strait of Alaska will be wintering here in the Sacramento Valley. The path that these birds take is called the Pacific Flyway.

Naturalist Matthew Forester gives bird watching tours at the Llano Seco Wildlife Preserve in Chico. Forester says the Sacramento Valley as a whole is an ideal location for snow geese to winter. 

“We are surrounded by lots of rice fields around here, so they get a lot of their macro and microorganisms from the rice fields," said Forester.

Credit: KXTV
Snow geese look for food in a field near Chico. An estimated five million of the birds are expected to arrive in the area this winter.

This unique landscape is the perfect setting for photographing the snow geese, and other migratory birds. You will, however, need some sort of zoom lens. Snow geese are skittish birds and prone to fly away when they get scared.

Several birding field trips are offered during the Snow Goose Festival that will lend you an opportunity to get close to the birds. 

“It takes practice for sure. You have to take hundreds of hundreds of pictures, but that’s part of the fun,” said Forester.

Credit: KXTV
Backroads host John Bartell compares cameras with Randy Peterson. Peterson traveled to Chico from Iowa to take pictures of the snow geese that are arriving in the Sacramento Valley.

The field trips will take visitors to popular viewing spots like the Sutter Buttes, Bidwell Park, the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge and Rancho Esquon outside Durham. There are also a number of bird-themed activities that take place throughout the festival. The Snow Goose Festival runs from January 23 - January 27.

Continue the conversation with John on Facebook.

________________________________________________________________

WATCH ALSO: Tibetan monks create and destroy incredible work of art | Bartell's Backroads

They made it one grain of sand at a time and then swept it all up. Tibetan monks recently were in Cameron Park to create a mandala--a very detailed work of art that took 12 days to create. At the end, they blessed it, swept it up, and gave away the sand to onlookers. John Bartell visited with the monks as they built their incredible creation.

 

Before You Leave, Check This Out