This is the least common goose in the East, occurring in numbers only along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Texas. Its winter headquarters is California's Sacramento Valley. These geese often migrate in large flocks at night, when they can be identified by their distinctive call. Like other geese they often leave the marshes to feed in nearby stubble fields, where they are frequently concealed from view until the observer is very close, when they explode noisily into the air. The "Tule Goose" of the West Coast is considered a large race of the Greater White-fronted; its breeding grounds were unknown until 1979, when birds were found nesting near Anchorage, Alaska.