Several thousand snow geese have died after a snowstorm forced large flocks to take refuge in the acidic waters of an old open pit mine in Montana. Mark Thompson, environmental affairs manager for mine company Montana Resources, said witnesses described the pit as like ‘700 acres of white birds’ on 28 November.
The companies estimated that more than 90% of the birds had been chased off by 29 November, Thompson said. Workers received some advance notice about the incoming flock from an off-duty Montana Resources employee about 25 miles away.
These are numbers beyond anything we’ve ever experienced in our 21 years of monitoring by several orders of magnitude.’ The employees worked hard to save the birds, he said.
The estimated death toll is based on drone and aircraft flights over the pit, which holds about 175bn litres of water. Thompson said federal and state agencies were still confirming the number of dead geese.
The companies would investigate to try and determine what circumstances led to this kind of perfect storm, with thousands of birds making a late migration and then facing a snowstorm at a time that Berkeley Pit had the only open water in the area.
In some cases, they were causing some to stay in places where they had never stayed the winter before, and he noted there were 4 to 6 million snow geese on the continent.
Even so, these companies could be fined if the EPA determines the companies were not in compliance with the bird hazing program, but Thompson said he was confident the efforts were adequate.