Bill Marchel: South Dakota spectacle is spring break of a natural kind

For me, the waterfowl migration denotes the changing of seasons. So in springtime I migrate myself -- like the ducks and geese I go to see.

The prairie of South Dakota is my usual destination -- Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge near Aberdeen to be exact. I go to watch and photograph waterfowl, and to recharge after a long winter.

I was a senior in high school when I first witnessed the springtime spectacle on the prairie. A buddy and I had driven west to see the birds. Just before dark we stopped in a small South Dakota town and asked a man, "Where do we go to see the snow geese?"

"Just go west of town," the man said.

"On what road?"

"It doesn't matter," he answered.

My friend and I couldn't understand why the man had been so vague, but as we drove west, we found out. Once outside of town, flocks of waterfowl, mostly snow geese but ducks too, were visible in every direction, and on that blustery March afternoon, it didn't matter what road we were on. Waterfowl were everywhere.

That night we slept in the back of my pickup. A stiff prairie wind rocked the truck, and the constant howling eclipsed the cries of all but the lowest flocks of migrating geese. At dawn, when I opened the door to my pickup topper, the sky was filled with birds, a sight neither my friend nor I had ever witnessed.

I've been going back ever since.

"The peak of the waterfowl migration here at Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge usually occurs during the last week of March," said John Jave, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deputy project leader.

According to Jave, weather plays an important role in the number of waterfowl using the refuge at any one time. Greater numbers of birds visit the refuge when the prairie is relatively dry because the ducks and geese have fewer areas to rest. Also, favorable conditions for migration, such as a series of four or five days of warm spring weather with south winds, will condense the migrating birds. Otherwise, during unstable weather, waterfowl tend to trickle through.

But, it has been my experience that even an average spring migration will find roughly a half-million snow geese in and around the refuge.

Though most noted for its spectacular springtime snow goose migration, Sand Lake NWR also attracts many other species of waterfowl by the hundreds of thousands.

One sunny April morning I observed 24 species of waterfowl from one location. Many of the ducks were engaged in courtship flights, and at one point I counted 12 flocks of pintails in the air at one time.

Visitors to Sand Lake should plan on spending at least one morning or evening viewing waterfowl. Ducks and geese normally spend the day resting, but early and late in the day, the birds will leave the refuge to feed in nearby farm fields. At times the sky is filled with birds from horizon to horizon.

But don't discount daytime viewing. Occasionally a circling bald eagle will panic the resting geese into flight, and like "the wave" at a sporting event, alarm will spread from one end of the flock to the other until all the geese are in the air. Sometimes the flocks are so thick the sky beyond them does not show. Like a passing cloud, the hordes of geese often block the sun and cast a giant shadow on the Earth below.

Nearly as impressive as the sight is the sound. When the huge flocks of geese rise, hundreds of thousands of wings beating the air generates a low rumble that sounds like distant thunder. That, combined with the clamor of their anxious calling, make the event an audiovisual experience of a lifetime.

For more information about the waterfowl migration in South Dakota, call the snow goose hotline at 1-605-885-6401, or call the Sand Lake NWR headquarters at 1-605-885-6320. Information is also available online at www.fws.gov/sandlake. Food and lodging are available in Aberdeen.

Bill Marchel is an outdoors writer and wildlife photographer. He lives near Brainerd, Minn.