(We were lucky to see a mass assension late in the afternoon. Above are the remnants as they start to come back down to the fields. To be able to watch as thousands of these big birds take flight to the skies in just a few seconds, is priceless.)
My brother and I have always been pretty close, especially though some really difficult times growing up. After almost seven years of incarceration, he was released from prison this past November. For those years, we could only visit every few months since he was imprisoned quite a ways away from us. Not long after his first year, we visited him in winter and on the long way home we drove along the Illinois River. That was the first time I’d seen Snow Geese and it left a big impression on me. Funnily, when we picked him up in November, I saw a flock of Snow Geese flying over the prison that none of us will ever have to see again. Now it’s the bird I’ll associate most with my brother.
Although my brother was the main inspiration for this piece, over the course of working on it I started to project more personal sentiments upon it as well. 2022, especially the end of it, was full of a lot of exhausting challenges. Mentally and emotionally I’m still recovering, but I’m hoping very much to leave all that behind as I process things and step into a brighter year. And to anyone reading this, I very much wish the best for you too.
Today's adventure was, I drove to the Wildlife Management Area to see the snow goose migration!
Every spring, flocks stop by our area on their way back to their summer homes in the arctic! These include vast numbers of snow geese, and smaller numbers of tundra swans. Dedicated birders come from far and wide to see them, and since the place is pretty near my house, I decided to go look at them.
This morning when I got up it was cold and I was very sleepy and I almost didn't go, but I'm glad I did! My pictures don't really do it justice, but here goes anyway.
Swans:
We started off with a drive around the lake, and saw this flock of swans resting near the shore. The smaller birds are the left are Canada geese, so if you're familiar with those, that gives you an idea of how big the swans are! They pretty much just hung out there the whole time I watched; every now and then one would stretch out its neck a bit and get comfy again.
Then I drove to the Willow Point parking lot, which is Snow Goose Migration Central. There were maybe eight or so cars there, in early afternoon on a Wednesday--the best times for Snow Goose viewings are dawn and dusk, and of course the weekends are very busy. They had a whole row of a dozen extra port-a-potties in for the Snow Goose crowds.
From the parking lot, you walk about half a mile to the viewing spot, along this nice paved trail:
The viewing spot has a pavilion and some benches, and--on this day--eight or ten well-bundled-up senior citizens, who have settled in for long-term viewing with their binoculars and tripods, and a rotating cast of other visitors like me, with dogs and strollers and such, who have stopped by to see what all the fuss is about.
The official count this morning, apparently, was 23,000 snow geese (along with 105 tundra swans, and some Canada geese). During the day, the giant flocks break up and smaller groups fly off to look for places to eat, but some stick around. So this is the small, partial flock that was on the water this afternoon:
Here's a group that was off feeding, coming back in to join the main flock:
They approached in in a somewhat-disorganized-but-recognizable version of the classic V formation, but then scattered as they got close, with the returnees filling in seemingly wherever there was a free spot amid the flock.
A little while later, something really neat happened, which was that something spooked them, and the whole flock took off and swirled around for a few moments--I didn't try to get any pictures of it, because I knew they wouldn't turn out, and I wanted to see it. They took off in a body, like you'll see flocks of starlings doing from a field, and there was a sound like a rainstorm on a tin roof, from all of their wings going at once. They came right at us, in the viewing area, and passed overhead, and wheeled over the lake for a turn or two, before settling down again a little to the left of where they started:
I didn't get the necessary landmarks in the picture to make it obvious, but basically now the rightmost edge of the flock is about where the leftmost edge was before they all got up and moved.
A little while later, it looked like they were getting ready to do it again, and I got this picture:
But they only a fraction of the flock took off that time--maybe a quarter?--and when the rest didn't follow suit, they all landed again, shifting the overall flock a little bit back to the right.
This tree across the lake had a Bald Eagle in it:
Which the birders suggested was probably what had the geese all riled up. After a bit more watching, I decided I was cold enough--and I wasn't going to see anything to top what I already had--and started back to the car. While I was walking back, I heard the flock take off again, and from that distance, it sounded like a waterfall.
This is what it was like standing on my porch just now. When I went out it had been going on for a while and when I stopped it was still happening. Snow geese headed back to the quarry for the night. Lots of them.
They’ll be in Nazareth until February if it’s a normal year.