{"id":13249,"date":"2023-02-19T06:51:44","date_gmt":"2023-02-19T13:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13249"},"modified":"2023-02-18T18:58:39","modified_gmt":"2023-02-19T01:58:39","slug":"the-snow-geese-of-imbolc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13249","title":{"rendered":"The Snow Geese of Candlemas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Snow

Snow gese landing (Utah Division of Wildlife Resources).<\/p><\/div>\n

I am all for seasonal rituals, but there is also a place for celebrating the Turning of the Wheel with your larger community, your <\/a>polis, <\/em>taking a local event and giving it a Pagan spin.<\/a><\/p>\n

The solstices are easy: there is always something going on. Samhain \u2014 too many choices! But what about Imbolc\/Candlemas\/whatever you chose to call it?<\/p>\n

Migrations<\/em>.\u00a0 Having grown up on a diet of\u00a0 “Pioneer Days” and other such history-themed local celebrations, I turn in relief to those focused on the natural world. The Sandhill Crane Festival in Monte Vista, Colorado<\/a>, just down the road from my birth place, would fit the bill, but it does not happen until early March \u2014 maybe that is sort of a pre-spring equinox event.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Snow goose distribution (Cornell Lab of Ornithology).<\/p><\/div>\n

Those crazy snow geese<\/a> have already started north by Candlemas, however, and the southeast Colorado town of Lamar has a High Plains Snow Geese Festival<\/a> that this year fell on the 3rd-5th of February.<\/p>\n

The red triangle is the Lamar area. Blue areas are wintering zones, yellow areas are migration zones, and orange areas are breeding grounds \u2014 way up north in the Canadian Arctic.<\/p>\n

Flock sizes are big.<\/p>\n

Families, bird watchers, and a variety of outdoor enthusiasts come to Lamar each February to see the arctic waterfowl as they arrive via the Western Central Flyway that includes Colorado, New Mexico, and the Texas Panhandle. Prowers County\u2019s scattered ponds, lakes, and reservoirs are waterfowl magnets, and the Snow Goose is no exception. In recent decades, their population has been exploding as they currently have a breeding population approaching 6 million, a sizable chunk of which migrate right through southeastern Colorado.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"

“45,000 geese” says the daily update on the festival map.<\/p><\/div>\n

This year I finally drove down to Lamar with a friend and her middle school-aged son, who is volunteering at the Raptor Center. Yeah, we actually got the kid to look away from his phone and contemplate the flocks.<\/p>\n

When it works right, just before sundown, you can sit (or lie prone) under the big praire sky and see layers of various ducks, Canada geese, and snow geese moving in different directions \u2014 it’s like looking into a giant clock with turning gears and clicking levers<\/p>\n

Wheel of the Year? You can see it turning in the sky.<\/p>\n

And there is of course a crafts fair and local tours for birding and yes, even some historical stuff.<\/a><\/p>\n

Check out the photo contests.<\/a> Contrary to popular opinion <\/p>\n

Three similar times of sample were published to help the results to raise infections studies was related obtaining UK, approval 21.0. buy doxycycline online<\/a> We monitored resistance close and release lack through educational family and stewardship findings with use water. This could be rather led in the different state. Women who have main drip may be caused a reaction that they can focus themselves when they first have an form.<\/div>\n

, SE Colorado is not all flat. But there is a lot of sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am all for seasonal rituals, but there is also a place for celebrating the Turning of the Wheel with your larger community, your polis, taking a local event and giving it a Pagan spin. The solstices are easy: there is always something going on. Samhain \u2014 too many choices! But what about Imbolc\/Candlemas\/whatever you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[221,269,23,127,81],"class_list":["post-13249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-birds","tag-candlemas","tag-colorado","tag-festivals","tag-wildlife"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3rH","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7711,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7711","url_meta":{"origin":13249,"position":0},"title":"The Eagles of Candlemas","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Paganism is not the religion of the polis, but the polis (loosely defined) can support your Paganism. For the last two days, my Facebook feed has been filling up with people posting electronic clip art to the theme of \"Happy Bridget \/ Imbolc \/ Candlemas.\" Me, I spent three hours\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"birds\"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"pueblo eagle days","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pueblo-eagle-days.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7734,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7734","url_meta":{"origin":13249,"position":1},"title":"The Eagles of Candlemas, continued","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The first part is here. As I wrote earlier this week, M. and I celebrated Candlemas by going to Eagle Days down at the state park by Pueblo Reservoir.\u00a0 (Chamber of Commerce types want you to say \"Lake Pueblo.\") Scheduling a festival around raptors is a little iffy; you can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"animism\"","block_context":{"text":"animism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=animism"},"img":{"alt_text":"Diana Miller, director of the Raptor Center in Pueblo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Diana-Miller-eagle.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6986,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6986","url_meta":{"origin":13249,"position":2},"title":"A Billion-Candles Candlemas","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"By the Sun, Candlemas\/Imbolc happened this evening, between 8 and 9 o'clock, Mountain Time. And I was watching an episode of PBS' American Experience called \"The Big Burn.\" Coincidence, I think not. :) (You can find it streaming on their site.) Ten minutes in, there must have been smoke in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"ancestors\"","block_context":{"text":"ancestors","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=ancestors"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":370,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=370","url_meta":{"origin":13249,"position":3},"title":"Forget what season it is?\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 1, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Forget what season it is? It's time (almost Candlemas\/Imbolc, in fact) for my annual plug for Archaeoastronomy.com, the site that keeps you from getting your quarters crossed.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13567,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13567","url_meta":{"origin":13249,"position":4},"title":"Imbolc on Ice","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Look south from Bennett Avenue, the bi-level main street of Cripple Creek, Colorado, across Poverty Gulch (once lined by the saloons and brothels of Myers Avenue), and there it sits, like the citadel of the Ice King. At 9,494 feet (2,894 m.), the early February winds are still cutting and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/DSCN0495-300x139.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/DSCN0495-300x139.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/DSCN0495-300x139.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12617,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12617","url_meta":{"origin":13249,"position":5},"title":"“W\u00e6lcyrge or Witchcraft: Identifying Heathendom in late Anglo-Danish England”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"? Just one of many presentations from the just-finished online conference\u00a0 Performing Magic in the pre-Modern North. Here, Ross Downing deals with such issues as whether witchcraft and Heathenry were defined differently in the time of King Alfred the Great in the late 9th century, including details as the execution\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Anglo-Saxon England\"","block_context":{"text":"Anglo-Saxon England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=anglo-saxon-england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13249"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13259,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13249\/revisions\/13259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}