Snow Geese and Quilt squares......day trip

I'm finishing up some recent stuff that I haven't posted.  We went back to Henderson to see the geese again.  It was a nice overcast day that actually makes taking the photos a little better.

 A huge mass of them were all huddled together in one field.  Extend the edges of this photo about 6 times to get the idea of the size of the flock at that spot.  The Snow Geese all sit together and the Greater White-fronted Geese were sort of around the edges.  There was one large group of the White Fronts sitting in another field....but just as far away.

 At one point a flock took to the sky from another field and headed towards this group.

I won't put dozens of photos that all look alike this time. 

 We had friends with us and were also looking for more of the Quilt barns that are in the Morganfield and Sturgis area.  We managed to find a lot of them and I also still had the photos from the first trip down there to post.  I posted the library in Morganfield already, so I won't do it again, but here are some of the others.  I really like this one on the blue barn!  My favorite!

 No square here, but I liked this silo and the little stable and the moody skies.

 Inside there were 4 really big donkeys....mules??.....they were BIG like horses.

This was a nice little barn and square.....in the middle of no-where down a long winding road.

 Lots of people in the area are putting them on houses.....harder to find and photograph.  This one is called Joseph's Coat.  They have a brochure with the names and locations.

 Maltese Cross

Rose of Sharon

 This illustrates why you don't want to sit in the back seat to take photos and be too lazy to get out :-) I really dislike whoever it was that decided that backseat windows should not roll down all the way.  sigh

Tulips

 1810 Church......the original of the Presbyterian Church that this one was on.

On a Vet's office.....Great Grandma's Quilt

 All-American

 Missed the name on this one

 Gifts

 Golden Memories....on the Senior Citizen's Home

 Harvest Star...on the Union County Extension Office where the nice people gave us the map.

 Lover's Knot.....I've seen a different pattern with this name.

 Philadelphia Pavements.....at the hospital

 Scraps of Glory

 Sunbonnet Sue

 Union County Middle School

 White Buck Winery

 Ryan's Journey

 Double Wedding Ring

 Fan

KY Chain

Believe it or not....there are more squares in the area that we couldn't find or didn't have time for!

 There was one mile of highway that we traveled repeatedly while looking for all these squares.  We counted 13 hawks either on the ground or on fence posts!  They were there each time we went by.  This must have been a mile of ground with a high population of mice or something good to eat!!  The photos are awful because I had to shoot quickly through the window.

I've never seen so many hawks hunting so close together.  Weird!  

Red-Bellied Woodpecker.....

I was watching some of the smaller birds on these wire feeders, when the Red-bellied Woodpecker female showed up.

 I'm not sure I have ever seen one with such a distinct "red belly" as this one.  It was very noticeable.

 Turned and ready to go

 Searching for just the right seed.

 Just hanging around.

 The one on the bottom must look the best

 "How can I get the peanuts out?"

 Take what you can get.

she doesn't do as well on the ball....too little support for her tail.

Falling from the sky.....

We drove over to Henderson, KY to the Sauerheber Refuge, yesterday to see if the annual migration of Snow Geese had arrived.

Yep!.....there were a "few" there :-)  This is one of the highlights of the birding year for me.  There are 1000's of Snow Geese, Greater White-fronted Geese, and ducks that stop here every winter to spend a few months at this safe preserve.  They seem to know exactly where the boundaries are and stay out of the hunter's fields.  

 This may look like a flock of starlings or other blackbirds, but in reality they are all geese.  Large numbers of them decided to take to the air and change their location in the field while we were watching.  What a sight it is to see this many geese in the air at once!

 A distant shot to give the feel of the size of the swarm.  I wish I could post these full size, but Blogger won't allow me to do that any more.

 I did a lot of multi-shot rapid shooting and just let the birds stream by.  Wow...what fun!  (I took over 1000 photos before we left.  I didn't even realize how many I was taking!)

I got a lot of landing shots that way and that is where my title comes from.

 It looked like it was raining birds....they were "falling from the sky!

 Actually they were just landing, but it just had that feel of birds floating down like rain (or snow :-)

Not too many close shots....they were too far away.  But here are some of the mix....Snow Geese in both color patterns and White-fronted Geese.
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This refuge is part of a large Wildlife management area.  A large number of acres along the road are protected from October to March from hunters, and 1000's of water fowl will spend the winter there. This is a wonderful place to visit if you are anywhere near enough to visit! Viewing is not always good depending on where the geese are hanging out, but sooner or later you find some of them in the flooded fields along the road, and there are some observation stands if you have really good camera equipment for long distances.