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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Snow Geese migration

Madison County is not visited by many snow geese because the deep snow usually remains past their migration time.  But we have had thousands fly over already this year and some have even landed on the extreme southwest corner of the county.

But west of Madison County in Jeffereson and Clark Counties upwards of 100,000 will spend two weeks resting and feeding in the open stubble fields and lakes.  Mud Lake, Market Lake and Camas National Wildlife Refuge all have huge numbers of them visit.

During their migration snow geese will be accompanied with a smaller species, the Ross's goose, on the left,  the "Blue phase" Snow in the middle.  I lucked into this photo a couple of years ago in their migration through Jefferson county.

Here is a flock of snows coming into rest on a pond at the Camas NWR as the sun was setting.


This year some of the flocks of snow geese have had Greater White-fronted geese accompany them in their migration.


Flocks of over 10,000 will sometimes invade the fields, making one heck of a racket.

I do wish the snow would leave sooner so more flocks would enjoy the large stubblefields in Madison County.  But at least they visit us.

18 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

So neat. LOVE that sunset photo! Gorgeousness!

Kah-Wai Lin said...

Love the second picture! Lovely!

Bob Bushell said...

Wow, there is so many of them, I could get lost.

mick said...

Fantastic in-flight photos.

AFTERMATH said...

I saw thousands of them in New Jersey a couple of weeks ago, a first for me (not Jersey, the birds). Yours have clean faces,but all the snows I saw had filthy, muddy mugs!

Fotokarusellen said...

A very nice set of images. The sunset photo is stunning. Well done!
Like your blog very much and going to be around.
Have a nice week.

Hilke Breder said...

What a great picture: the Ross Goose on the left, a dark morph Snow Goose in the center and a white one on the right! Ross's are such a rarity in New England; I have never seen one.

Unknown said...

Great series!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

joo said...

I'm in awe - beautiful post!

Sondra said...

WOW thats an amazing number of geese! I see a couple of cranes looking on in amazement in that last shot!

holdingmoments said...

What a sight that must have been.

srp said...

That picture at sunset is absolutely gorgeous!

Springman said...

What an amazing set of images! The sunset shot is really outstanding to my eye. The last pic of the immence flock is awe inspiring!

Mike B. @ slugyard.com said...

That is an impressive flock! They visit an island near here too, but unfortunately I didn't get out there this year.

troutbirder said...

Great post. I was stunned to learn when some of my sons NDSU buddies took him snow goose hunting in North Dakaota hundreds of decoys were reuquired. I can see now why!

Peter said...

SSensational!

Larry said...

Wow Bill, great photos of the geese. Getting a shot of the Snow, Ross's and Blue Goose all in one frame is amazing! The sunset shot is gorgeous and the photo of the thousands of geese taking off with the Sandhill Cranes in the foreground makes me long to be there.

Unknown said...

The amount of birds in the last pic is truly amazing! I have never seen anything like it. The photo taken at sunset is absolutely beautiful!