Every year, an ancient journey is repeated
A migration that crosses the entire continent of north America
from the high Arctic to the subtropics
Snow geese on their long flights have seen dramatic changes in the land below them
changes reflected in the way different people view the natural world
Once this passage was witnessed by native Americans of many distinct cultures
For all of whom these sights held a spiritual significance
This is the story of a journey that holds many different meanings
Behold
A sacred voice is calling you
All over the sky, a sacred voice is calling
Each spring, in response to warming temperatures,
the flocks rise from their winter homes
From California to the Carolinas
snow geese have begun their 3,000 mile journey to their Arctic nesting grounds
Timing is critical
If they arrive in the Arctic too soon,
the land will still be held in winter's grip
there will be no food
Too late, and winter will descend again
before they can rear their family
They fly in skeins, high and fast along traditional routes
Goose and gander stay together for life
and on the long journey north, the gander leads the way
They arrive on the last breath of winter
For native Americans across the whole continent,
these great cycles of nature are fundamental to their view of the world
The turning of the seasons, the return of the birds
for the Indian the way to see life is a circle
The power of the world always works in circle
The wind in its greatest power whirls
Birds make their nests in circles
where theirs is the same religion as ours
The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood
and so it is in everything where power moves
With extraordinary accuracy, pairs return to their nesting sites
Now the goose takes the lead, leaving the gander to stand guard
She was successful last year, so she will try to find the same nest
Among the dwarf willows,
her nest will be safer from predators and more sheltered from the elements
than those of her neighbors on the open tundra
Speed is vital
Only a day or so after rebuilding her nest, she begins to lay
She'll need to incubate her clutch for 3 weeks
But Arctic weather can change dramatically
So why do these birds travel so far to nest in such harsh conditions
because here in summer the sun never sets
The Arctic receives as much sunlight as the tropics
but here it all comes at once
and triggers an explosion of plants and insects
For these few brief months, the Arctic fills with life
But native Americans who live here have a very different understanding of the world
If we did not treat the birds well last year
then this year they will not return
And there will be no summer
Winter will return straight back to winter
So we have respect for all the animals
The birds bring the midnight sun with them
to the land of the Koyukon, Cree and Inuit
Life here depends on the continuing cycles of nature
So respect for all creatures underlies the native American view of life
The birds are also welcomed back because they could be hunted for food
But so long as the birds are respected both in life and in death
they will continue to give themselves up to the hunters
and the cycle of the seasons will continue
The changing patterns in this wild landscape
are strongly linked to the spirit world
a world where there is no difference between humans, animals,
plants and the earth itself
They all share the same spiritual power
We do not chart and measure the vast field of nature
or express her wonders in the terms of science
On the contrary, we see miracles on every hand
the miracle of life in seed and egg,
the miracle of death in a lightning flash and in the swelling deep
Life for these chicks is intertwined with the rapid change of the seasons
Six hours old and already they must leave the nest
The goose coaxes them from the shelter of the willow
They have only a matter of weeks in which to grow and learn to fly
And the best feeding grounds are many miles away
Under the watchful eye of the gander,
they must make their way to the grassy tundra by the coast
All the chicks in the colony have hatched at the same time
Now the families gather together at the feeding grounds
the safety in numbers
The chicks feed for 24 hours a day in a race to beat winter
At the same time their parents moult
and replace worn flight feathers for the long journey south
For the moment both chicks and adults are flighless
All too soon the signs of winter appear
The pack ice creeps south again
and a chill mist walls at the Arctic will soon be overwhelmed by bitter cold
The chicks are just 6 weeks old
As the adults take to the air,
these chicks face the greatest test of their lives
Following their parents, they make a brave if tentative start
They must learn the traditional routes and the dangers that lie along them
First stage of the journey will be a long one
many hundreds of miles
Beneath them, the land changes
They've left the open tundra behind
and are crossing the great coniferous forests of Canada
Farther south still, and a new world awaits them
The straight line has replaced the circle
Growth and progress have replaced the natural cycles of the wilderness
The relationship between humans and nature is very different here
The birds are desperately hungry,
They must find somewhere to feed and rest
Food covers the ground below them,
but these crops are grown to meet the needs of people
and snow geese have no place in these profit calculations
The sight and sound of white geese drifting onto a field below is an irresistible drawn
Those birds must to find somewhere to feed
Exhausted and hungry,
the family will take a share of the harvest
The geese are feeding on spilt grain and corn crops
but they can also strip seeds from the last of the crops to be harvested
If they turn their attention to a newly planted winter wheat or rye
then they are certainly not welcome
Bird scares detonating every few minutes
give the geese no chance to feed or rest
But there are places on their route where they can land in safety
places where the crops are planted especially for the birds
Their parents have used them before and know exactly where they are
Many of their traditional staging posts
are now protected as national wildlife refuges or nature reserves
Network of sanctuaries, islands in a sea of agriculture
all along the narrow migration corridors
But the geese can't remain for long at these northern refuges
winter isn't far behind them
On the long hauls between refuges, the geese fly high,
up to 10,000 feet where the cold thin air offers less resistance
and cools hardworking muscles
Their route south takes them over the prairies
Once when they were bonded only by the circle of the horizon,
these grasslands were black with herds of buffalo
The remaining prairies and their few buffalo are now hemmed in by the straight lines
The Sioux nation once relied on this land for all its needs,
both material and spiritual
But in the last century,
a Sioux holy man Black Elk saw that a change was coming
He heard a voice calling from a huge flock of white geese flying from the north
Be hold
a sacred voice is calling you
All over the sky, a sacred voice is calling
He was shown a vision of the future
a time when the prairies would yield to civilization
and his people would abandon the ways of their ancestors
to walk the black road of disharmony
In his vision, he met with the spirit of the north
who gave him a magical gift and told him to use it
to guide all people back to the path of balance and harmony
The gift was the cleansing power of the north wind
brought each year to the land of the Sioux by the great flocks of snow geese
And to invoke this power he was taught a song
They are appearing, may you behold!
The white goose nation is appearing, behold
Black Elk died in the middle of this century,
thinking that he had failed to use his power
Seeing people increasingly cocooned by civilization,
Black Elk felt that everywhere they were walking the black road
Yet every year, the snow geese still come
and the power of the cleansing wind can still touch modern lives
As they move south, they gather into ever larger flocks
Having left their marshland roosts,
a blizzard of snow geese descends onto the fields
to glean the remains of the harvest
No longer a threat to the farmer's profit,
the flocks can be appreciated just for their splendor
Since the 1950s, snow geese have changed their habits
to take advantage of modern high-yield agriculture
They have largely abandoned marshland feeding areas in favor of these fields
This rich source of food increases winter survival
and the population of snow geese has been rising steadily for several decades
This increase in numbers has been welcomed,
even in a world driven by profit and loss,
snow geese can have financial value
Many farmers actively encourage the birds onto their fields
by leaving spilt grain or by flooding rice fields after the harvest
to make them safer feeding grounds
In America, hunting is big business
Experienced birds know how to make life difficult for the hunters,
they break formation from skeins into vertical columns
But birds born this year are easily fooled by crude imitations
into thinking that other geese have found food and safety
They have no idea what lies in wait
They've flown 3000 miles and now close to their destination
This is New Mexico, in the American southwest
Once again, they are entering a wilderness,
a desert where the natural cycles of life are still important to the people who live here
Scattered along the valley of the Rio Grande are the villages of the Pueblo Indians
They, like all native Americans hold birds in high esteem
Birds with their power of flight
are seen as messengers between the world of spirits and the world of man
All the different tribes of Pueblo Indians celebrate the power of birds in song and dance
For the Zuni, snow geese hold a special place in their mythology
Their Pueblo owns its location to the navigational skills of these birds
K-yak-lu is a Zuni spirit who is the keeper of myth
It was he who found the middle place, the centre of the world that is now Zuni
But at first, K-yak-lu was blind and could not find his way
His lips became splayed with continual calling
and his voice grew shrill and dry-sounding
like the voices of far-flying geese
As he cried, wandering blindly,
these waterbirds hearing, flocked around him in great numbers
He was transformed into a white goose and flew with them
They led him to whispering water where he founded the Pueblo Zuni
These geese have reached the end of their journey,
And one more cycle has been completed
This is Bosque del Apache, winter home to 23,000 snow geese
In similar refuges all across America,
the sky is filled with wild voices from the Arctic
These are sights and sounds that can't fail to stir emotions
and perhaps to let us glimpse a very different view of the natural world
The old Indian was wise
He knew that a man's heart away from nature becomes hard
He knew that lack of respect for growing living things
soon led to a lack of respect for humans too
So he kept his youth close to a softening influence
We name and classify these birds, we count their populations,
we can describe in mathematical symbols the flow of air over their wings
Our understanding of these birds and their journeys draws on science
The native people of North America are aware of other dimensions to these spectacles
Yet to anyone in their presence, these dazzling flocks are awe-inspiring
symbols of the wild land where they were born,
the white birds of winter are vivid reminders of the power of nature's cycles
Subtitles by Andrew and Hattie www.mvgroup.org