Snow Geese I | Oil and the Caribou | 2002 | 59 in. x 74 in.

Early September 2002, coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. Nearly 300,000 snow geese arrive from their nesting ground in the Canadian high Arctic to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in early autumn. They feed sixteen hours a day on a type of cotton grass to build fat reserve before starting long migration south to places like New Mexico, California, Texas and Mexico. During spring and summer months nearly ninety species of birds migrate to the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge from all six continents, to nest and rear their young, to molt, to stage, and to feed. Through the migrations of these birds the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge gets connected to every land and oceans of the planet.