PARMA, Idaho — If you're a landscape, weather or mountain enthusiast, you may have stumbled upon KTVB's Idaho Weather Watchers Facebook group.
Denise, a member of the group, shared a photo earlier this week, captioned "The skies over Parma are filled with snow geese, tundra swans, and sandhill cranes this time of year.
So, what are Snow Geese?
They arrive in clusters, landing in Idaho during the latter half of February.
Mostly white with black-tipped wings, snow geese deliver a layer of drenched down and dissonance to the Roswell Marsh Wildlife Habitat.
They may be known as lesser Snow Geese because of their smaller size, but that has little to do with their large numbers.
Each year upwards of 60,000 waterfowl will make this part of Parma their home for a few late winter weeks.
While they're here, bird watchers take full advantage, knowing full well the birds will soon fill up the sky and fly on once again.
There are millions of these geese that migrate from Central California to their breeding grounds in Northwest territories, like Canada and Alaska.
Snow Geese have skyrocketed in numbers and are now among the most abundant waterfowl on the continent.
March 10 marks the end of hunting seasons, which helps control the population so they don't destroy their breeding grounds.
Snow Goose hunting in the Eastern United States was stopped in 1916 because of low population levels. Hunting was allowed again in 1975 after populations had recovered.
Since then, their populations have continued to grow to the point that some areas of Tundra nesting habitat are starting to suffer.
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