Snow Geese

I will admit it. I am a birder. The info is lacking from my blog profile and from my Facebook profile, but it's true. I think birds are one of God's Top Ten. Finding them is like a treasure hunt and I take great delight in observing their personalities and behaviors. I have a loosely compiled life list. I enjoy discovering birds on my travels, though I will admit, I have yet to travel FOR the birds. Except the snow geese. I traveled to Skagit Valley in Washington to find them. (Never mind the fact that I was out there already visiting family!)

I keep my bird feeder full some of the time. I take my binoculars hiking a lot of the time and I wait for the perfect bird photograph pretty much none of the time. I'm not a particularly patient photographer. Therefore, upon encountering thousands of snow geese in Skagit Valley during migration, I was in bird heaven! No photography patience needed. The birds were everywhere and the photos ops were more than abundant.

We had to search a bit to find said geese as you never know which field they will be spending the day in, nor if they will even be there. We spotted them off in the distance looking like a picket fence. However, we knew that white picket fences are not the norm on Skagit Valley farms, so off we went to find roads that took us closer and closer. Jackpot! We ended up on a country road in between two fields populated with these noisy characters.

Laughing ensued! How can one not be filled with delight in being surrounded by frenzied feathers flying furiously! It was so much fun. Even when I felt something fall on my shoulder, I was still having fun. I was traveling with Dad. "Dad, did a goose just poop on me?" "Eewww...why yes, yes he/she did." Clean again in no time, ready for another 100 photos. (Nice of me to chose only six to share, isn't it?)

We never did figure out what made them all take off in one huge raucous swarm, but being in the midst of them as their wings clattered and their honking crescendo-ed, we were awestruck. The noise was deafening, but in a grand and glorious way, even for one who is nearing deafness, as I am.

If my travels take me back to Washington during migration of the snow geese and trumpeter swans again, as I hope they will, to the Skagit Valley I will go. If my travels take me there a tad later in the spring the consolation prize will be acres and acres of tulips. (Some which are exported to Holland, but don't tell anyone...) Fields everywhere hold treasure hunts of birds and flowers, but rare are the moments as dramatic and scenic as in the shadow of Mt. Baker on a clear day when the snow geese are flying!