Snow Goose Air....

I really enjoy watching them in the air.  I'm not usually good at flight shots....too slow to keep up :-)  But with this many geese, I am bound to catch at least a few good shots of them coming or going.

 Flying past

 I just love shots like this where they are all hanging in the air, floating back down to earth.

 "Heads up!  Out of the way!  I"m coming in for a landing!"

 These three are sort of like watching airplanes that are lined up and coming down one after the other on the same run-way :-)

 This group were taking off rather than landing.

Suspended

 "I think I see an empty spot....coming down!"

 I happened to being doing some multi-shooting when these two were landing so I have an whole series of shots of them one right after another.  It is amazing how they stay in sync with their wings as they come down together.  Kind of like watching Olympic synchronized diving.

 Fall out

 Spread wide.

Wings back, head forward, landing gear down.....

This was just so much fun :-)

The Snow Geese are still here.....

We went to Henderson, KY yesterday to check and see if the Snow Geese were still around.  We were really fortunate and they were not only there, but they were closer to the road than I have ever seen them.  There are several raised viewing stands in the area and the largest mass of geese were right behind one of them!  They were so close, I was afraid to try to climb the viewing stand for fear of scaring them further away.  So I just got out and stood next to the car and moved as little as possible!

In air... 

 .....on land.....

Trying to give you an idea of how densely massed they are!  Would love to have a count of how many are there!  This is just one "camera section".....multiply by many more sections that look the same!

.....and "sea" :-)  

There were Greater-White Fronted Geese mixed in one area as well, but I don't have many photos of them.

 Because I could get closer, I want to show some close-ups of the color phases.  Snow Geese have two main color phases: The white morph and the dark morph.  Then there are juveniles of each.  These are a bunch of mainly darks and their juveniles.

 The adult dark is very black with a white head.  It's juvenile is very dark gray.  The lighter grays are the juveniles of the white phase and they vary a lot.

 ....white juveniles

....dark juveniles 

 Everyone alert and looking around

 I don't know what that web stuff is on the grass, but it made them look like they were behind a fence!

Looking out....you can barely see another "layer" of them in the distance on the other side of that water. 

More dark juveniles. 

 "She's looking at us!....and taking photos!  Are we going to be on TV??"

I think the gray juveniles are really pretty. 

 Heads up!  I try to scan the groups hoping to find a rare Ross's Goose mixed in, but if they are there, I have never found one.  I thought I had in one photo, but think it was just a dark phase Snow, although it seemed to have a white belly, more than most.

Backs turned :-)  

Most of the time the heads were down in the grass eating, but I won't post a lot of those.

 Along one field that is totally flooded like a shallow lake, there were a few sitting alone.  Here is a white juvenile....very pretty feathers!

 The white adult

The dark adult

A huge truck drove by at one point and sent thousands of them into the air.  I love catching them when they are floating back to earth again!  I took a few videos, too, but don't know if Blogger will even let me post them any more.  I have lots of landing photos.  I'll save them for another post.  They look like they are just hanging there in the air :-)  I wish I didn't have to shrink these photos down for posting because I think it makes them look poor.  But Blogger rules and I have no choice.  

A new year.....

A new year and I haven't even posted anything yet!  Here are some photos of the birds during our recent snow.  It's beginning to melt finally, but there is still plenty of snow at our house.  The temps have been pretty cold, but are finally warming up.  I've been busy sewing instead of taking bird photos.  I'm ready to get out and get some new photos!  

 I always love the Chickadees, so a few photos of one of these "cuties".

 The Downy male trying to get the peanuts.

 I like the way he bends his tail for balance.

The Titmice are so adorable! 

 He looks a bit wistful.....but I'm glad he got one of the peanuts.

 The Carolina Wren was too fast for me to get any decent photos except this one.

Mr. Blue....the Blue Jays have really been stealing all the peanuts.

I thought I'd get a good shot of his beautiful feathers!