Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

What inspired me to post this is a small pleasure I have enjoyed for the last thirty-three years since moving to the Lehigh Valley of PA.

We are on the flyway for Snow Geese coming down from Canada. The geese will come down around dawn and fill many acres of the harvested corn fields in the area. They are eating the kernels thrown off as the harvesters load corn into large dump trucks that haul them out of the fields. In addition to kernels being thrown off by the transfer process, additional kernels get jostled out of the trucks.

In the late afternoon, after feeding all day, the geese take to the skies and look for a lake or pond to land in for the night. They form massive V-shaped formations that stretch for miles. Tens of thousands make this transfer from fields to water each day. This goes on for about three weeks until colder weather drives them farther south. Sometimes you can catch these formations set against a great sunset and that is truly awe-inspiring.

I love standing outside and watching as wave after wave of these geese fly over (better they fly over a little off from directly overhead as they can plaster an area with droppings -- my car and driveway have been victim to that on several occasions). You can hear them from a mile away. Sometimes the stream of honkers lasts for ten or fifteen minutes.

Remembering films I've seen of D-day, also makes me think of the waves of bombers the Germans must have seen as the formations flew over in support of the Allied landings at Normandy.

Once they are in the sky, they begin to form V-formations of 25 to 50 birds each and these Vs travel alongside or behind other Vs.

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Usually the birds swirl in and out in groups of 50 or so but on this occasion, they all lifted off at the exact same moment.

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BassmanBruce Loc: Middle of the Mitten

Beautiful pics Mike.

badapple Loc: Twin Lake, Michigan

Wonderful! Nature is transcendental.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

Thank you!

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

Thank you, and yes it is!

whatdat Loc: Del Valle, Tx.

Very interesting!!! Must be a beautiful thing to watch (as long as the droppings don’t hit you in the eyes or mouth :-)). I enjoyed your pictures of the geese. And, would like to see one of your pics of geese against the backdrop of a sunset. Must be awesome.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

When I was learning to fly in northern California in about 1970, one day my instructor said "look down to your left." There, several thousand feet below us was a flock (herd? whatever?) of snow geese heading north. It looked like a giant white river, undulating slowly side to side down its length while the whole thing moved smoothly up the valley. A sight I'll never forget.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

My goal is to capture that scene eventually. It seems the times I've enjoyed that view the geese were not close enough to make a good photo. If it were possible to know the exact time when a nice red/orange sunset would happen, and where exactly the flyovers would occur, I could set up a 500 mm lens to capture the scene. While I almost always have a camera and tripod in the car, I don't always have a long lens with me. Now that the geese have moved away, it will be next fall before there is another chance.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

Well, at least being above them, you didn't have to worry about their "bombing run"!

ecblackiii Loc: Maryland

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

My small free pleasure is actually quite large sometimes. In a wet year we have abundant wildflowers all over the desert!

Your pictures are wonderful. They are so sharp and clear.

BebuLamar

Nice picture! You must have expensive cameras.

nervous2 Loc: Provo, Utah

Love that second shot!

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

tommystrat Loc: Bigfork, Montana

God's nature is truly remarkable! And enjoying it is, indeed, a free pleasure!