Today's weather: Scattered flurries of snow (geese, that is!)......

We made our first trip over to Henderson Slough in Kentucky to see the migrating geese yesterday. I get so excited every year about these geese! We weren't disappointed. It was a great day....not too cold, and clear and sunny.
When we got there the largest mass was sitting in this open field, really easy to see. I took this distant shot to show how far away they are and the size of the flock. There happens to be an elevated viewing stand right by that field, so we scurried up to the top to watch them.

This shot was taken later.....I didn't notice until I got home the bird up in the tree! It has to be an eagle. Too big for anything else. Every year we have been there, we have seen an eagle to two hanging around.

Right after we arrived they took to the air en masse. I don't know how they keep from running into each other! It's an amazing sight watching them lift off and fill the sky. They seem to know where the hunting boundaries are and just flew in a fairly tight circle and landed back in the same field.

Wow....that's a lot of Snow Geese!

Here they are coming back down.

I don't know how they pick out their spot and squeeze into it.

Later on while we were checking some other areas, they left that field and settled in one of the corn fields. the corn is left in sections and the field is flooded to make a nice place for them. They sit way down at the end of the rows....away from the road....so this shot is cropped a lot. There are ducks near the front, but I can't tell what kind....usually a bunch of Mallards.

There are also White-fronted Geese in the mix and this year there didn't seem to be as many and they stayed sort of by themselves at one end or near the back. Probably some Canada Geese there, too.

I cropped this shot of the air because I like the depth of the geese in it.

I cropped this for a better view of the geese. The Snow Geese come in two phases....white and dark. The dark adults have white heads. Mixed in also are the juveniles of both the dark and whites.

Another cropped shot.

On the other side of the road they have flooded an entire field with water. It is frozen at the moment and there were about six swans walking around on the ice or lying there. They always keep separate from the geese. I'm guessing Tundra Swans, but I can't really tell.

A couple preening.

A pair of Mallards wanted to join them.

I took a short video of them in the air.

I can't wait to go back over and check on them again next week sometime. They will hang around for several months if we are lucky.